By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer Monday, April 14, 2008
SCHENECTADY -- The Union Street Bed and Breakfast, site of controversial swingers' sex parties, is on the market.
Owner Bob Alexson has listed the business for $269,900. He said the city's previous efforts to stop the parties at the house at 1362 Union St. have not influenced his decision to sell. Alexson said he has a job offer in Florida that he'll take if he can sell the house. Alexson also has a house in another location in Florida. He wouldn't say what kind of job he was offered. "I had an offer three years ago. I've got grandkids now. I can move on," Alexson said. "I've always wanted to go down where it was warmer." He said he'll continue to hold the swingers parties while the bed and breakfast is on the market. "We just got done having a party last night," he said. City officials attempted to halt Alexson's parties over the last two years by questioning if he was making money on the parties, which would qualify the bed and breakfast as an adult entertainment business. Alexson was given a deadline of last October to make arrangements to either stop holding the parties or move his business to an industrial zone. But the deadline passed without incident. According to city records, Alexson bought the property in 2001 for $77,000. He said it's likely worth more than $269,900, but he wants to sell it quickly. He said Collar City Auctions and Realty, which has listed the property, informally marketed the site for the last month, but it was only listed on the Multiple Listing Service recently. The listing shows no pictures and little information other than, "Outstanding Business Opportunity." City Corporation L. John Van Norden said he had no comment on news of the sale.
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April 14, 2008, 7:24pm
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Better call DEC and see if we need the soil/bldg mitigated before you make an offer on the property.
Better call DEC and see if we need the soil/bldg mitigated before you make an offer on the property.
eww.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
SCHENECTADY Union St. swingers club for sale Neighbors happy parties may come to an end BY KATHLEEN MOORE AND MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporters
The swingers club on Union Street may soon be shutting down. Owner Robert Alexson is putting the building up for sale. But he won’t leave until someone agrees to pay $270,000 for his Victorian-style mansion, which is assessed for $125,700. “If I don’t get my price, I’m staying,” he said after listing the property with Collar City Auctions Realty on Monday. Alexson said his decision to sell has nothing to do with his run-ins with city officials over the parties he hosts where couples can swap partners for sex. The city had told him he must move his parties out of the residential neighborhood on Union Street by the end of October, but he continued to party all winter without any apparent repercussions. Alexson has insisted for years that the city cannot legally stop him from running the parties. “What I do in the privacy of my own house is none of their business,” he said. City officials disagree, but Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden said he was pleased by the news that Alexson would be shutting himself down. “I hope he gets a quick sale,” Van Norden said. Van Norden added that Alexson’s swinger parties, once a booming business that Alexson said brought in more than a thousand dollars each weekend, seem to have died down since the city told him to cease and desist. “He’s not advertising parties anymore. He has advertised three bus trips. It looked like it was really drying up,” Van Norden said. Neighbor Dana Swalla, who has led the fight to stop the swinger parties for the past two years, said there’s been little noise and few major events there in recent months. “He doesn’t have people out on the porches like he used to — that stopped a long time ago,” she said. “He had something pretty big this weekend. Cars lined up along the street. He’s had a few relatively well-attended parties. I think the people have just been more careful about where they park.” Swalla brought the issue to public attention in 2006 after neighbors were repeatedly awakened by large parties that continued late into the night. Many did not end until 4 a.m. GOOD-NEWS PARTY Even though neighbors are being disturbed less often now, she still celebrated the news that he put his building up for sale. She happily chatting with reporters about what might be the end of her long fight. “I can’t say I’m sad, given all the battles and everything,” she said. “It’s unfortunate he couldn’t fi nd a way to work with the neighbors that might have made him more successful.” She plans to meet with her neighbors to determine what uses they would support at the large building, which would likely need a special use permit to rent out rooms as a hotel or bed and breakfast. She wants to oppose any such permits. “I’m going to make sure whatever he got doesn’t get carried forward,” she said. “I want to discuss with my neighbors what uses they think are appropriate.” Alexson said he has no specifi c timetable on when he hopes to sell the property. “I’ve already got people coming over like crazy looking at it so I’m not worried about it,” he said. Alexson said he has three job offers down in Florida. He would not elaborate on the offers but said only that one is for offering to run a gated community or some type of property management work. In his Collar City Auctions Realty advertisement, Alexson described his home as a 6,000-square-foot Victorian mansion, built in 1897, with 14 bedrooms, two living rooms, a formal dining room and a commercial kitchen. Not included in the ad is a description of the mansion’s basement, which Alexson marketed to swingers as an ideal place for sex games. He furnished it with several bondage toys. The ad also says that he makes $107,000 in annual rents at the B&B. The details behind that income are unclear. Alexson had previously said he rarely has anyone stay overnight, but some guests have said they rented rooms for months at a time. The county began an investigation into Alexson’s income two years ago after noting that he paid very little hotel tax. As a B&B, he must pay tax on every room that is used, even if it is not used for an entire night, according to county officials. They never announced the results of that investigation.
First published: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Now here's a way to stop those swingers parties at the Union Street Bed and Breakfast in Schenectady once and for all. Please, someone pony up the $269,000, or whatever it'll take to get Bob Alexson to unload that impressive, if somewhat tainted, piece of residential neighborhood real estate. The assessed value, interestingly enough, is just $125,700. Mr. Alexson says he's moving south -- which, come to think about it, is not unlike what he's done to his own property. To think that the 111-year-old, 14-bedroom Victorian-style mansion could continue to be a functioning business again, but without being a place where people go to act out sexual fantasies. The late night, and early morning, comings and goings of such a clientele constitute a disruption that wouldn't be tolerated in most other communities. It's not what either the neighborhood or the rest of the city needs. Questions and suspicions have persisted for two years now as to whether Mr. Alexson was making money -- thousands of dollars a weekend, by some estimates -- not only on the altogether legitimate rental of the rooms in the inn, but on swingers parties as well. That would have made the place an adult entertainment business, and required him to move into a section of the city zoned for industrial use. The sale of the building would resolve all that. The free market can do what city officials were finding quite daunting, namely address a quality-of-life issue. Even their undercover investigations couldn't put Mr. Alexson out of business. The swingers parties continue, in fact, as Mr. Alexson readily acknowledges. Who knows what a prospective buyer who just shows up at 1362 Union St. might encounter? Might be better to call in advance. But do call -- someone, someone with the wherewithal to make a serious offer. What's touted in the real estate ads as an "outstanding business opportunity" is actually more than that. This is a chance for someone to buy Schenectady's way out from under another kind of urban blight. ISSUE:Schenectady's swingers B&B is up for sale.THE STAKES:Here's a chance to enhance the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhood.
SCHENECTADY B&B owner tackles suspect in his room BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Steven Cook at 395-3122 or scook@dailygazette.net.
The owner of the Union Street Bed and Breakfast, whose swinging guests have been the subject of much discussion, found himself with an unwanted guest late Sunday: a burglar, police said. Owner Robert Alexson awoke to a man in his room, just before 10 p.m., going through belongings. Alexson slowly got out of bed and confronted the man. “I asked him why he was here and he said he’d taken a wrong turn,” Alexson said Monday. Alexson then asked for his room number. He gave the wrong one and Alexson said he took him down. “I called 911 on my phone and stayed on top of him until police arrived,” Alexson said. The man was identified as 28-year-old Robert Case, of Sumner Avenue. Case is now charged with second-degree burglary, a felony. Case was allegedly in the process of taking assorted tools, including a screwdriver, a putty knife and potato peeler, police spokesman Lt. Brian Kilcullen said. Alexson said the peeler was found in Case’s pocket. It was part of a cutlery set that the man is accused of taking. There was no sign of forced entry. Alexson was uninjured. He said he believes Case may have gotten in through an unlocked door. Alexson also reported a break-in last week. Sunday’s incident was reported at the 1362 Union St. business that has drawn the ire of neighbors and the city for parties hosted where couples can swap partners for sex. The city had told him he must move his parties out of the residential neighborhood on Union Street by the end of October. However, by Alexsons’s own statements, he continued to party all winter without any apparent repercussions. Alexson announced last month he was putting the business up for sale, asking $270,000 for the mansion. He said Monday he has gotten some expressions of interest.
Sex aids part of party site auction Schenectady B&B up for sale, including devices if the new owner wants them
By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer First published: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
SCHENECTADY -- Going once! Going twice! The controversial Union Street Bed and Breakfast known for its swinger parties is heading to the auction block. Owner Bob Alexson has tried to sell the 8,000-square-foot business at 1362 Union St. since April. But he said Tuesday he's only received a few offers that were well shy of his $269,900 asking price. So Alexson's decided to auction the house Aug. 25 and its entire contents -- including the sex apparatus in the basement.
Alexson said he's choosing to sell his property in this manner to create competitive bidding and is not doing so because of any financial problems. He said there is no minimum bid on the property and whether the bid is accepted will be up to him. The buyer also will be responsible for paying a commission to the auctioneer.
Alexson, first scrutinized in early 2006 after the community learned he was having after-hours swingers' parties at the inn, has said he wants to move to Florida, where he has another house.
Interested parties can get a tour of the house starting at 9 a.m. Aug. 25, with bidding starting at 10 a.m. Everything else with the house, the furniture, commercial kitchen, silverware and sex devices, will be sold along with the property. Alexson said he'd take the contraptions with him if the buyer doesn't want them.
Randy Passonno, president of Collar City Auctions Realty and Management, said a buyer can purchase the entirety of the house and property.
"To some people, (the history) enhances the sale of the house," Passonno said. "To some, it might bring some negativity. It all comes down to what the buyer wants to use the property for."
Schenectady city officials began looking into the inn's parties in January 2006 after a neighbor papered the neighborhood with flyers about the goings-on in the house. The city said police had run undercover investigations of the parties the year before, but no charges were brought.
Alexson has always maintained he rents his rooms to mostly business clientele, and that he holds the parties for his own personal enjoyment.
The city tried to halt the parties by questioning whether Alexson was making money on them, which would qualify the bed and breakfast as an adult entertainment business.
Alexson was given a deadline of last October to make arrangements to either stop the gatherings or move his business to an industrial zone. But the deadline passed without the city seeking further action.
Alexson said he continues to hold the swingers' parties three to four times a week. He has a "party bus" parked behind the building as well, but he said that vehicle will be going with him. Stanforth can be reached at 454-5697 or by e-mail at lstanforth@timesunion.com.
So Alexson's decided to auction the house Aug. 25 and its entire contents -- including the sex apparatus in the basement.
EEWWWW....used sex equipment...now that sounds enticing! EEEWWWWWW!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Monday, August 25, 2008 By Michael Lamendola Sexy B&B to become psychiatrist's office
SCHENECTADY — The Upper Union Street bed and breakfast that had been the home of controversial swingers parties will soon become a psychiatrist's office. The three-story building at 1362 Union St. was sold at auction this morning for $180,000 to Dr. Tom Qualtere, a psychiatrist who already has an office at 1405 Union St., in the area informally known as Doctor's Row. Qualtere said he plans to use the building to expand his office space. He said he will turn the first floor of the house into offices, while maintaining the second and third floors for its current tenants. The current owner of the house, Bob Alexson, had hosted swingers parties that drew the ire of both neighbors and city officials. He said this spring he was looking to sell the house so he could move to Florida, but got no offers at his asking price of $269,000. Qualtere said the closing date for the purchase is Oct. 31, but he expects to complete the sale earlier.
How perfect, now Dana doesn't have to walk too far.
OUCH! (good one!)
I wonder if the shrink bought the 'adult toys' along with the building?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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