IDA examines self-storage tax break
MALTA, N.Y. » Some Saratoga County Industrial Development Agency officials are concerned about potentially precedent-setting tax breaks for a proposed largescale self-storage facility.
Saratoga Springs-based Prime Group Holdings LLC is seeking more than $460,000 in real property, mortgage and sales tax savings for a $4 million, two-story facility it wants to build near the southeast corner of Route 50 and Edie Road in Wilton.
After construction, however, which would create 90 jobs, the site would only employ five fulltime people. Typically, the IDA looks for many more permanent jobs before approving tax breaks of this size.
“This is a thought-provoker,” IDA Chairman Rod Sutton said. “You open the floodgates if we go ahead with this. Saratoga County being what it is, other storage units are going to spring up all over the place.
“How many jobs do they really create? That’s the question.”
The IDA board met Monday at Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership offices in Malta.
Marty Vanags, partnership president, said Prime’s proposal differs from most self-storage facilities in that it’s more geared toward business customers. For example, it would help retail clients who can’t afford expensive storage space in downtown Saratoga Springs.
Also, contractors sometimes
use storage space as “showrooms” to display their products.
Prime, with offices at 85 Railroad Place, employs 40 people locally. It is the largest independent owner and operator of self-storage facilities in the U.S. with properties in 23 states. In addition, the company has investment funds that manage over $800 million in private equity real estate.
Vanags described the proposed Wilton facility as a showcase “like a model home for their overall product.”
“But it still doesn’t create the positions we’re looking for to justify a PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) agreement of that magnitude,” Sutton said.
Sutton said at least six other self-storage facility developers have already contacted him, saying they would seek tax breaks, too, if Prime’s application is approved. In his many years on the board, Sutton said he’s never had so much reaction to a proposed tax break.
The IDA has never approved tax breaks for selfstorage units before because developers didn’t believe they would qualify, he said.
“This would be setting a precedent,” Sutton said.
A separate firm, Northeast Green Tech LLC, is seeking the Town of Wilton’s approval for a threestory, climate-controlled self-storage project with up to 125,000 square feet, just east of Exit 16 on Ballard Road.
Prime has already purchased the 3.41-acre parcel for its proposed facility, between an existing Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall and Saratoga Tile business. The Town of Wilton Planning Board has approved the project, but Prime hasn’t obtained financing for it, IDA officials said.
A public hearing on Prime’s proposal is scheduled for 8 a.m. Monday, April 9, at Wilton Town Hall.