College Park, Schenectady The Galesi Group is redeveloping a former “Big N” plaza in Schenectady, which had been built on top of an old industrial site. The planned development, called College Park, will feature a new YMCA and at least three office buildings. The developers will be cleaning up the YMCA property to the NYSDEC’s highly protective “Track I” remediation level, and will be giving the property to the YMCA, which is currently raising funds for its new 65,000 square foot building. Investors believe that the presence of the YMCA, with its work-out equipment and pool, will enhance demand for the new office space, and local development authorities believe it will attract more than 1000 people a day to downtown Schenectady. The total investment at College Park is expected to exceed $20 million. David Buiko, the Chief Operating Officer for the Galesi Group told NPCR that “the project would not have been possible without the Brownfield Tax Credits.”
Demolition of Big N Plaza under way By Steven Cook - The Daily Gazette
Demolition workers began taking down the Big N Plaza on Nott Street Thursday, nearly 30 years after its namesake closed.
The building, a symbol of Schenectady blight, is making way for a new $20 million development to include the YMCA and the Graduate College of Union University.
"This is a great day for Schenectady," Mayor Brian U. Stratton said. "This is the realization of a dream for me personally and a great addition to the community."
Demolition and cleanup is expected to take 45 days at a cost of about $450,000, officials have said. Syracuse-based Bianchi Industrial Services is performing the demolition. Construction on both the college and YMCA buildings is targeted to begin in the spring, taking about 12 months, Metroplex Development Authority Chairman Ray Gillen said. The Graduate College of Union University is to lease a 36,000-square-foot $8 million building from the Galesi Group. The YMCA signed onto the project last year.
The new site will shed the Big N moniker in favor of the new designation College Park.
The site has held the Big N name for more than 40 years. The Big N department store chain went on a building boom in the early 1960s, constructing department stores and groceries in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Schenectady in 1962 and 1963, according to newspaper accounts.
Construction on the 68,000-square-foot Neisner Big N Discount House was to begin just after Labor Day 1962 on the former ALCO Products property at Maxon Road and Nott Street.
But the Big N was short-lived. It was closed by 1978, not 15 years after it opened.
The building remained, with successive tenants since, most recently the Ellis Hospital School of Nursing. The school finally moved out in summer 2004.
Over the years there were several proposals to redevelop the site. A 1983 proposal had an outlet mall going in, a spokesman then called it "definitely not a flea market." An extensive arcade amusement area with 30 or more new game machines was also slated. The building and parking lot gradually fell into disrepair. But a small, faded Big N Restaurant sign on a much larger sign post still beckoned passing motorists. Officials repeatedly ran into environmental problems from its industrial past. The Metroplex Development Authority approved a move Wednesday night making it lead agency in the site’s state-mandated environmental reviews. "We’re removing a blighted spot in the city and replacing it with a fabulous business park," Gillen said.
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
$450,000 demolition for the PC HQ on Erie. No creation of new jobs there..simply relocation of current employees. PC also receives $23,555,000 in tax exemptions from 2009 - ? (compliments of the 'local authority').
Where are the numbers for the amount of money the Metroplex has wasted? The projects they anticipated, but never happened.
$450,000 clean up for nothing. A loan to the former owner of the Van Dyke who took off and was never repaid. $80K spent for a Visitors Center on Erie which never happened and sold for nothing...now to become a fast food joint. Millions spent for nothing...no job creation ...no tax relief...nothing.
$450,000 demolition for the PC HQ on Erie. No creation of new jobs there..simply relocation of current employees. PC also receives $23,555,000 in tax exemptions from 2009 - ? (compliments of the 'local authority').
Where are the numbers for the amount of money the Metroplex has wasted? The projects they anticipated, but never happened.
$450,000 clean up for nothing. A loan to the former owner of the Van Dyke who took off and was never repaid. $80K spent for a Visitors Center on Erie which never happened and sold for nothing...now to become a fast food joint. Millions spent for nothing...no job creation ...no tax relief...nothing.
Isn't Neil Golub on the plex board? Doesn't anyone see the conflict of interest? Throwing taxpayer money out the window for private entities is irresponsible. But throwing taxpayer money at a sitting plex board member seems a bit unethical........no? Are there any by-laws for the plex or is it just a free for all who makes up rules as they see fit?
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 COUNTY CODE OF CONDUCT Schenectady County Code of Conduct Page 1 SCHENECTADY COUNTY CODE OF ... Drug Administration, as well as the New York State Department of Health. Schenectady County has ...
Logged
440 State is a "beehive of activity"-lol. For spiders. Even the puppets moved to the arcade. Who updates this crap? 
