County eyes new home
Looks at mostly vacant nine-story Schenectady building
SCHENECTADY – Schenectady County employees could be headed to new digs deeper in the heart of downtown.
Though it’s not a done deal, county leaders are considering the former Lottery Building at 1 Broadway Center, one of the tallest buildings in the Electric City, behind Proctors as a potential site to house most county operations under one roof.
The first step will come Tuesday night when county leaders vote on a resolution to enter into a real estate option at a cost of $75,000 that would take the nine-floor 161,606-square foot building off the market until mid-august. The agreement also allows for the option to be extended for another month at the same cost.
An option contract in real estate is an agreement between the buyer and the seller outlining the price of the property that the seller agrees to as long as the buyer purchases the property in a set time.
“The options says we can purchase the building, come back later, and lease the land if we wish to,” added Legislature Chairman Gary Hughes. The $75,000 would be deducted from the $6 million sale price of the building if the county decides to buy the property.
It would cost a little more than double that amount, $12.5 million over the course of two years for the building and the land, the latter of which the county could also lease, added Hughes.
“As the needs of our departments continue to evolve, we are looking at all available options for housing county government offices to best serve our community in a cost-effective, this option would allow the county to gather detailed reports and cost estimates for any repairs or modifications that would be needed, and we will continue to evaluate other buildings and conduct due dili
gence to seek the best value at the lowest cost,” Hughes said in a statement Friday.
The Social Security Administration currently occupies the eighth floor and would generate nearly $2.8 million in rent money over the seven years left on its lease agreement.
Additionally, there are leases for a cell/radio tower atop the structure that would bring in about $60,000 in revenue annually. The county would have the remaining eight floors to itself.
The existing main county office building at 620 State St. that houses the county clerk, county legislature county manager,
county attorney, county human resources office and two floors of Family Court among other operations and departments is circa 1962.
As a result, Hughes said the county has been putting “significant money into it.” He said that the county also needs a new facilities building, a cost that has been pegged at around $5 million.
“We can’t stay where we are for free, then you began to look at where could we go,” he said. “This building is available ... we could relocate our 620 State St. operations if we chose to, we could consolidate some of other leased space in other parts of the city if we chose to, so there’s an opportunity for savings. But also we need to know
exactly what the cost associated with renovation 1 Broadway Center are, hence the need for the option,” he said.
He said having the option in place will allow the county to get cost estimates for any repairs or medications at the building, which was constructed in 1990.
The Lottery, part of the New York State Gaming Commission, has the lease at One Broadway Center that expires in October. At one point, the agency had hundreds of employees on six floors. The Office of General Services has previously said that the move to less than three blocks away to a five-story, 80,000-square foot building at 354 Broadway is to occur this spring.