Want an upscale apartment in downtown Schenectady? Get in line.
Demand for residential space downtown is so high that just one year after finishing a three-story residentialoffice building at Broadway and Hamilton Street, a local developer is looking to do the same thing again — only bigger — right across the street.
Rotterdam developer John Luke Hodorowski wants to construct a four-story building at 242 Broadway that would house office space on the first floor and 39 upscale apartments on the top three floors. The project would cost $7 million and is slated to go before the City Planning Commission later this month.
The site is currently vacant — a grassy plot measuring nearly seven-tenths of an acre between Villa Italia Bakery and a Metroplex-owned parking lot. The building itself would contain about 20,775 square feet, according to materials submitted to the City Planning Commission. It would include a small patio in the back.
Hodorowski is in negotiations to purchase the site from MXW Holding Corp. of Albany. A sale will not close on the land, which was assessed at $32,500 this year, until the city approves the project, said Ray Gillen, chairman of the Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority.
Metroplex will likely provide a small façade grant for the project, he said, though an exact amount has yet to be determined.
The economic development agency has been eyeing redevelopment of the site for some time now as part of its vision to clean up and revitalize properties — including contaminated lots and rundown buildings — along the lower Broadway corridor that extends through downtown.
“It’s a great location for residential,” Gillen said. “It’s close to all the downtown amenities. Everything that’s been built downtown so far is leasing up very quickly. They’re all high-quality units. We always said this would be the next stage of development downtown and it’s working the way we had hoped.”
Bringing more residential space to downtown Schenectady has been a big focus of local officials and developers in recent years. For a long time, much of the revitalization downtown was focused on establishing a thriving arts and entertainment scene and luring new restaurants and technology companies. In the past five years or so, developers began pursuing residential projects downtown to support the influx of jobs and nightlife.
One year ago, Hodorowski finished construction on a $3 million, three-story building across from Villa Italia Bakery. It features retail space on the ground floor and 18 upscale one- and two-bedroom apartment units upstairs that are fully leased.
“This is a bigger version of what’s across the street,” Gillen said of the new project. “It’s twice the size. It’s a big project.”
John Luke and Paul Hodorowski, co-presidents of Hodorowski Homes, are responsible for other residential developments in the Capital Region, including the Rolling Hills Development in Halfmoon, Travers Meadows in Malta, Twenty West in Guilderland, Vly Pointe in Niskayuna and Summit Hill Apartments in Troy.
Hodorowski did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
IMAGE PROVIDED
A rendering shows the four-story, mixed-use building proposed for the corner of Broadway and Hamilton Street next to Villa Italia Bakery.
IMAGE PROVIDED
A rendering shows a four-story, mixed-use building proposed for the corner of Broadway and Hamilton Street next to Villa Italia Bakery in Schenectady. Local developer John Luke Hodorowski wants to put office space on the ground floor and 39 residential units on the top floors.