New businesses planned for Schenectady County Airport

PHOTOGRAPHER: Marc Schultz

Property in Glenville at Route 50 and Airport Road.

Three new businesses could be moving to the Schenectady County Airport property next year, assuming the County Legislature next month approves proposed land sales.

Bruno Associates of Fort Edward would move its business making industrial presses to a two-acre site, and C2 Design Group, a design and architecture firm in Schenectady, would buy three acres and relocate there. Another business owned by C2’s owner, Euro Tile & Stone, would share the site.

The companies have all agreed to pay $90,000 per acre, meaning the sales would bring $450,000 in revenue to the county, which has marketed unused parts of the airport property as a business park.

County officials said they expect the companies between them to invest $3 million, and create 70 jobs, in total, within five years.

“We are excited to welcome these three growing companies to the county’s Airport Business Park and thank them for their investment in Schenectady County,” said county Legislator Grant Socha of Glenville, vice chairman of the county’s Committee on Economic Development and Planning.

The sale of county-owned land requires a public hearing and approval by the County Legislature. The hearing will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 5, in the legislative chambers in Schenectady, with action on the sale possible the following week.

The projects will also require town planning approval. Backers of both projects would like to begin construction this fall.

Glenville town Supervisor Chris Koetzle said the town won’t review the projects until after the county acts, but he supports the plans. “They are smaller businesses, and that’s what we want to encourage in Glenville,” he said.

Koetzle acknowledge traffic on Route 50 — nearly 22,000 vehicles per day — is a potential issue, but said the new business plans may justify the town asking the state Department of Transportation to again consider installing a traffic light at Route 50 and Airport Road, the only of the three entrances to the airport that doesn’t have a traffic light.

“Other than that, it represents a growing tax base for the town,” Koetzle said.

Bruno Associates designs and manufactures presses used in industries including automotive, paper, composites and furniture. It would buy two acres on Tower Road across from the airport tower and invest $2 million in a 16,000-square-foot facility.The company will bring 12 jobs, which could grow to 20 jobs by 2022.

C2 Design and Euro Tile & Stone together will build an 8,000-square-foot building, investing $1 million to bring 30 jobs to the site, with the potential for employment to grow to 50 jobs by 2022. The companies are now located in downtown Schenectady. The expansion is needed to provide more space for architects and marketing staff as well as showroom and warehouse space, county officials said.

“This helps us retain a fast-growing company in the county. They have outgrown the space they are in now,” said Ray Gillen, the county’s commissioner of economic development and planning.

“I am thrilled to be able to move both the C2 Design Group and Euro Tile & Stone teams to the Airport Business Park,” said Michael Roman, an architect who owns both companies.

As incentives to locate in the county, Gillen said both companies will qualify for an initial 50-percent exemption on property taxes on the new buildings, with full taxes phased in over a five-year period.

Other tenants at the Airport Business Park include DSM, a region Armed Forces Reserve recruitment center, Richmor Aviation and REVA, an aero-medical transport company. Even with the pending sales, Gillen said there are undeveloped lots remaining at the airport.

Reach Gazette reporter Stephen Williams at 395-3086, [email protected] or @gazettesteve on Twitter.