http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/06/04/nonote04.htm
KJ officials not worried about filling office space
By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com
Kiryas Joel – A five-story building for offices and stores is in the early stages of construction in front of the village sewage treatment plant on Bakertown Road.
Village officials hatched plans for the business center several years ago as an economic development strategy, hoping to generate jobs for what is statistically one of the region's poorest and fastest-growing communities.
No employers had been lined up to occupy the 65,000-square-foot structure when construction began about two months ago. But village officials are confident they can lure businesses once the building skeleton is complete – perhaps by November or December.
"We have no doubt that it's going to be occupied," Village Administrator Gedalye Szegedin said.
He expects the building to be completed in 18 months to two years.
He announced plans for the building in early 2002 and predicted construction would start by that summer. But late the following year, he said, the project was on hold because no banks would lend money for the work without tenants in place.
Community leaders cleared that obstacle in December by securing partial funding through a complicated series of transactions involving a $6 million loan by Kiryas Joel's religious school system – the United Talmudical Academy – and the sale of the village shopping center on Forest Road.
The deals generated roughly $2.7 million to start construction, which could total $6 million to $6.5 million, Szegedin said. The sponsors plan to borrow the rest after lining up the tenants.
And who are the sponsors?
Officially, it's the United Talmudical Academy, which now owns, through two shell corporations, both the shopping center and the 2 acres where the business center is being built.
But in reality, it's the village government, which Szegedin describes as the "visionary" and "motivator" for the project.
The first floor of the building will be retail space, with room for about 10 stores. The upper floors are for offices, with perhaps more retail mixed in, Szegedin says. He hopes to create up to 300 jobs but says the village could move its municipal offices into the building if unoccupied space remains.
The state declared the property an Empire Zone in 2003, offering employers tax breaks and other incentives to open offices in the building.
Maureen Halahan, president of the Orange County Partnership, an organization that lures businesses to the county, said yesterday that she knew little about the Kiryas Joel project but liked the concept.
"I think it's a great plan, and we certainly support it in principle," she said.
By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com
Kiryas Joel – A five-story building for offices and stores is in the early stages of construction in front of the village sewage treatment plant on Bakertown Road.
Village officials hatched plans for the business center several years ago as an economic development strategy, hoping to generate jobs for what is statistically one of the region's poorest and fastest-growing communities.
No employers had been lined up to occupy the 65,000-square-foot structure when construction began about two months ago. But village officials are confident they can lure businesses once the building skeleton is complete – perhaps by November or December.
"We have no doubt that it's going to be occupied," Village Administrator Gedalye Szegedin said.
He expects the building to be completed in 18 months to two years.
He announced plans for the building in early 2002 and predicted construction would start by that summer. But late the following year, he said, the project was on hold because no banks would lend money for the work without tenants in place.
Community leaders cleared that obstacle in December by securing partial funding through a complicated series of transactions involving a $6 million loan by Kiryas Joel's religious school system – the United Talmudical Academy – and the sale of the village shopping center on Forest Road.
The deals generated roughly $2.7 million to start construction, which could total $6 million to $6.5 million, Szegedin said. The sponsors plan to borrow the rest after lining up the tenants.
And who are the sponsors?
Officially, it's the United Talmudical Academy, which now owns, through two shell corporations, both the shopping center and the 2 acres where the business center is being built.
But in reality, it's the village government, which Szegedin describes as the "visionary" and "motivator" for the project.
The first floor of the building will be retail space, with room for about 10 stores. The upper floors are for offices, with perhaps more retail mixed in, Szegedin says. He hopes to create up to 300 jobs but says the village could move its municipal offices into the building if unoccupied space remains.
The state declared the property an Empire Zone in 2003, offering employers tax breaks and other incentives to open offices in the building.
Maureen Halahan, president of the Orange County Partnership, an organization that lures businesses to the county, said yesterday that she knew little about the Kiryas Joel project but liked the concept.
"I think it's a great plan, and we certainly support it in principle," she said.