255 River Street, LLC Public Hearing June 11, 2018 Conference Room, Office Start: 10:00 am Hearing Closed: 10:40 am At 10:04 am the Hearing Officer opened the Public Hearing and read the Notice of Public Hearing, which was published May 24, 2018 in the 21St Century Media Newspaper, LLC (The Record). The hearing officer stated that the purpose of this public hearing was to illicit comments from the general public in favor of or in opposition to this project. These comments will be transmitted to the members of the Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency (RCIDA) for their consideration prior to taking any action on this project at the regularly scheduled meeting of June 14, 2018. Speaker: Libby Coreno stated that she worked in the Saratoga Office of Carter and Conboy, PC and that she was representing Bonacio Construction. She read from the Excel spreadsheet on her iPad and the focus of her argument was the difference in benefits given Bonacio by the City of Troy IDA compared to the benefits requested from the by the 255 River Street, LLC developer. Ms. Coreno said she would send me a written copy of her comments by noon today. (Ms. Coreno did not forward her comments. I called her office and her secretary said she hadn?t yet arrived but she emailed her a request to contact me and Robin LaBrake, in a separate correspondence, also requested her comments. As of on June 13th, this office has not received her comments.) Other Attendees: None As no other person appeared at the Public Hearing and no other written statements had been mailed to the office for inclusion in the minutes of the Public Hearing, the Hearing Officer closed the meeting 10:40 AM. The above is a true and accurate account of the events of June 11, 2018 Public Hearing Cf" Jay Sherman, Hearing Officer for the RCIDA .ra. 5 I .11 JUN 182018 119? 1 1 i BUREAU u. E013 EUCLELUHMENT ATTORNEYS AT LAW M. Libby Coreno Director 1 Shareholder Email: lcoreno@carterconboy.com June 13, 2018 Mr. Robert L. Pasinella Executive Director via email and?rst class mail - Rensselaer County Industrial Development Agency 1600 Seventh Avenue Troy, NY 12180 Re: Application for IDA Benefits 255 River Street LLC Our File: 29168 Dear Mr. Pasinella, We are writing on behalf of Bonacio Construction (?Bonacio?) which was involved through itself and related entities for ?ve mixed-use redevelopment projects in the City of Troy dating back to 2013. We are in receipt of the Application for IDA Benefits (?Application?) submitted by 255 River Street, LLC (?Applicant?) for the McCarthy Building on River Street in Troy. I appeared at the public hearing for this Application on Monday, June 11, 2018 to provide comments and concerns related to the scope of the benefits requested, the lack of supportive information as to the amount of relief, and the potential for direct impact to my client?s existing projects. Please accept this submission as a summary of the comments placed on the record at the public hearing. I am enclosing a summary of the benefits received by my client?s entities for five projects beginning in 2013 for a total of $3,299,671 in tax abatement from the City of Troy IDA. Within those ?ve projects, a total of 83 apartments were constructed for an average per unit rate of $3 9,755 in abatement (real property tax, mortgage tax, and sales tax). At the time, my client?s applications for relief were based upon the potential for economic bene?t to the City of Troy in helping to build an apartment market with an increased rental rate. In the past five years, my client?s projects have generated an average rental price $1.45 per square foot. CARTER, CONBOY, CASE, BLACKMORE, MALONEY LAIRD, P.C. 480 Broadway, Suite 250, Soroiogo Springs, NY 12866 . TEL 518687.81 12 . FAX 518.587.4140 corterconboy.com Pasinella, Robert June 12, 2018 Page 2 After reviewing the Application from 255 River Street, LLC, it was noted that it seeks a total of $1,630,000 in tax relief for nineteen (19) apartment units. When calculated on a per unit basis, the Applicant is seeking $85,790 in tax relief for each apartment. The relief requested is more than two times the tax bene?t provided to my client for all of the units that have been constructed. The Application contains no explanation for either the need for such extensive abatement or the bene?t offered to the County of Rensselaer at a rate of two times that granted by the City ofTroy IDA for similarly situated projects. It should also be noted that the Applicant has disclosed an acquisition price of 1 .8M which is approximately $60.00 per square foot for a 30,000 SF building. By way of comparison, similar buildings have been acquired at $30 a square foot (Hendrick) and $45 a square foot (Cannon). Therefore, it is notable that the Applicant has a starting investment cost nearly double (or at least 1.5 times) greater than that of its competitors. Perhaps this explains why two times the amount of tax relief has been requested. Regardless, it is important to note that the IDA is tasked with looking at bene?ts to the community not acquisition costs incurred by the property owner. The Applicant makes mention in both the Application itself, and its cover letter, that the development project, ?will add to the live-work-play revitalization currently underway in Downtown Troy.? It is incumbent upon me to note that the revitalization mentioned by the Applicant was substantially impacted by the development projects of Bonacio Construction and the tax bene?ts it received at one-half the rate sought by the Applicant before such a market existed. As a result, we are concerned that such extensive tax relief will either (1) permit the Applicant to offer rental rates below the market generated by my client? 5 projects or directly impact the investments made to date; or (2) permit unfair recovery or recoupment of investment costs at double the rate that was offered to on similarly situated projects. In closing, we ask the members of the IDA to look carefully at the ?nancial impact to the delicate and emerging rental market in Downtown Troy. Furthermore, we ask that the Applicant be required to demonstrate, in signi?cantly more detail than currently has been shown, why such extensive IDA relief is warranted and what increased economic impact its project will have as compared to similarly situated projects. Thank you for time and courtesies in reviewing our position. Very tr Iy yours, LIZABETH CORENO CARTER, CONBOY, CASE, BLACKMORE, MALONEY LAIRD, P.C. 480 Broadway, Suite 250, Sorotogc Springs, NY 12866 i TEL 518,587.81 12 FAX 518.587.4140 carterconboy.com Mixed Use Deveiopment - Tax Abatement Downtown Troy Year Name Tax Tax Sales Tax Total Unit Count 2014 33 2nd 413 87 18,690 2 150 634,827 2013 RiverTri 631 41 2 150 833 91 2014 1134 000 000 156 800 1 ,800 484,653 Keenan - - 3 TOTALS 3,299, 6 71 2018 255 River Street 157,000 $1,630,000.00