A break from politics. We found this story interesting if not particularly sexy. Our LDC contact is out of town for a few days so we are unable to fill in the details we feel are missing.
The Marshall Ray building has been sold, according to the Times Union, to Poughkeepsie based PAZ Healthcare for $367,500. The sale went down on New Years Eve. The planned assisted living facility has no construction timeline. The seller was Harmony Tech LLC, a company owned by Uri Kaufman, the developer responsible for Harmony Mills in Cohoes.
The building's recent sale/transfer history is interesting.
The Troy Local Development Company sold the property to Harmony Tech in 2011 for $10,000. Harmony Tech planned to invest $10,000,000 to create student housing. The deed allegedly contains a reverter clause where the property reverts to the LDC if Harmony Tech does not make a good faith effort to proceed with the project.
At some point Kaufman decided, after $400,000 in structural renovations, that the project wasn't feasible.
According to the Times Union, (February 2015)"TLDC officials thought the property was theirs when they received a Jan. 8 email from Kaufman saying, "We're anxious to move forward with the donation. What's the next step? Do we have the paperwork?"
Then the Troy LDC discovered the building, which has been marketed for $700,000, had been transferred three days earlier on Jan. 5 to American Friends of Yeshiva Zichorn Dovid when a deed was filed at the Rensselaer County Clerk's Office."
Legal action was threatened.
The January 6, 2016 Times Union story states that the property was sold by Harmony Tech. Further down it indicates that the American Friends of Yeshiva wanted to sell the property quickly?
It seems to us that dumping $400,000 into a $10,000 investment goes a long way to establishing good faith on the part of Kaufman and Harmony Tech. Our question is, if the charity, American Friends of Yeshiva owned the property and wanted to sell quickly, why is Harmony Tech selling the building? Did we miss something or is the article incomplete?
This is good news for North Central. We hope PAZ hires good security. We wish there was a timeline for construction. The lack of a schedule makes us nervous.
13 comments:
Another Bill Dunne puff story. You sure do a good job carrying his water.
This propert was sold by one private company to another and was originally sold when Tut was mayor. Stop fixating on Dunne. You're one sick pup.
Is it really good news? Senior assisted-living is not exactly an economic development engine. Granted, it beats a vacant building, but will this be run by a nonprofit? If all we get is a rehabbed building that will further increase demand for public services w/out making any contributions to public coffers, how does this benefit the city or even North Central. Just as we have landed some meaningful private investment in N/C (First Columbia), we are going to potentially use riverfront property for a project that could end up a net consumer of public funds?
We need more particulars before we can really make an assessment.
Another building off the tax rolls----'F-in wonderful.
Or empty and derelict?
Bend over Bill. The Kenny of the Troy IDA.
This is awful news. I want the empty building. Or did Mark McGrath broker this deal?
Funny you mentioned Mark McGrath, little known fact he's adopted and his real last name is Berkowitz. He is a board member of the American Friends of Yeshiva and will greatly prosper by this sale. If you think this is a joke just ask anyone who knows him, he still hasn't cashed his bar mitcvah checks.
Terrible news for the city, esp north central. Troy is already over populated with low income housing. As stated this building will be used for "low income" Seniors. However if you look at the other "senior" housing units in the city they have become occupied by section 8 of all ages even young families. O'Neill apts, Lansingburgh Apts, Fawn Ridge, Diamond Ridge, Burns Apt and others were all built for the intent of the elderly. Once apartments became vacant and hard to rent they began to take whatever they can get. Lets say what we are all thinking. What do we get when we hear "low income"? Crime! This building will be a drain on city services especially medical transports to hospitals. The recent purchase of School 1 was good news to the area. But for every good thing that happens in this city, the city does 10 things to make it worse. Come on lets drain the tax payers more. We still have Haskell school and Leonard Hospital to sell to trash. The old Lansingburgh High School on 5th Ave will be on the market soon as well!
You've gone from the owners build assisted living for seniors to low income section 8? Quite a jump. The city had nothing to do with this sale, by the way. The places you mention were not all built for assisted living. You will not like anything that happens under a Democrat administration whether they're responsible or not.
Democrat - responsible in Troy? Now that's funny. It's still Harry's fault.
Carmzilla will fix it. Right brother?
Fix what brother? The mess your clueless, corrupt and incompetent leaders left her in? Why focus on her, Pat will fix it he promised he would. Think blue ribbon.
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