TechCity effort could cost $3.6M+
Capital spending on ex-Bank of America building would be spread out over 4 years
TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. » Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan has proposed spending some $625,000 in the coming year and another nearly $3 million for capital improvements over the next three years on a TechCity building now owned by the county.
The executive also wants to spend $75,000 in 2021 to hire a firm to help find tenants for the former Bank of America building, which Ryan wants to transform into a “hub” for “makers and creators.”
In his 2021 county budget address earlier this month, Ryan announced plans to convert long-vacant buildings at TechCity into a hub for artists, designers, manufacturers and other creative endeavors as part of his vision to create a “people-centered econ
omy” in Ulster County.
The proposed spending for 2021 is on top of the $137,000 the county already has spent on upgrades at the town of Ulster site and the up to $400,000 it still intends to spend there this year.
Ulster County Economic Development Director Tim Weidemann on Tuesday told the county Legislature’s Economic Development, Tourism, Housing, Planning and Transit Committee that the Ryan administration expects to submit a request to the Legislature in November for between $250,000 and $400,000
to “make sure the heating is ready to go and that the building envelope is protected from the weather throughout the winter.”
Ryan’s 2021 budget includes $225,000 for supplies, building maintenance and utilities for the building, which is at the west end of TechCity, as well as $75,000 to help identify tenants that could begin to occupy the building in the upcoming year.
The proposed capital plan for the site calls for $2.91 million to be spent between 2021 and 2024 “to redevelop the property into a hub for small-scale manufacturing and arts-related uses,” according to budget documents.
As detailed in the capit al plan, t he county
would spend $399,282 in 2021, $529,400 in 2022, $1,462,813 in 2023 and $514,500 in 2024, though, according to the plan, the county will “evaluate future ownership options before continuing with additional capital investments.”
The $399,282 being requested for 2021, Ryan said, will fund additional work to help stabilize the building and prepare it for tenants, which, according to budget documents, includes obtaining a temporary certificate of occupancy.
The county took ownership of the building, at 101 Enterprise Drive, in November 2019 as part of a tax foreclosure on two parcels comprising more than 82 acres.
In early 2020, the build
ing was identified as a potential site for a surge hospital to help the county grapple with rising hospitalizations from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Ryan administration called for the county to invest $137,000 to separate the electric and gas lines to the building from the rest of TechCity, which was the site of the IBM-Kingston complex until 1995.
Before those conversions could be made, though, it became clear that there would be no need for the building to be a surge hospital, and some legislators questioned whether, in the face of a possible $34 million budget shortfall, the county should spend money on the building, and they expressed con
cern that it would open the floodgates for more county money to be poured into the building.
Ryan and other lawmakers, however, pushed for the upgrades, saying the sooner the county brought utilities to the building, the sooner it would be able to market the building for sale and put it back on the tax rolls.
During Tuesday’s committee meeting, Legislator Tracey Bartels said she was worried the executive’s plan would mean the county would continue to own the building rather than sell it.
“It was never my assumption that we were going to maintain ownership status in this building,” said Bartels, a nonenrolled legislator from Gardiner who aligns with Democrats. “That’s
something that gives me pause.”
Weidemann said the Ryan the administration intends to discuss with the Legislature the future of the building once it’s up and running, but that occupancy “of some sort” is necessary to get the property back on the tax rolls. Weidemann also said the county hopes to find “partners” to share the capital improvement costs so the entire cost of renovating the building doesn’t fall to county taxpayers.
The Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee and Public Works and Capital Projects committees have scheduled a joint meeting for 6 p.m. Oct. 14 to review the administration’s proposed capital plan.