About 18 months after the village rejected a proposal to construct 40 luxury apartments and retail space on North Hudson Avenue, a second developer has come forward with new plans to build 24 condominiums on that same property.
That proposal came Tuesday night before the Board of Trustees from Capital District Ventures, a developer that has purchased the land from long-time owner Camelot Associates and would like to build two- and three-bedroom luxury condos listing for $179,900 to $199,900. The vacant property is located at 950 Hudson Ave., site of the former American Linen plant.
The condos, if approved, would be modeled after Brunswick Meadows in Troy. The developer of both projects is Piglavento Builders. Just like Camelot, Piglavento is seeking a special use permit from the village to build in Stillwater.
The new plans call for constructing six buildings on the land, each building containing four, two-story peaked-roof condos. The condos would be two- and three-bedroom, two-bathroom units between 1,700 and 1,800 square feet in size, each with a deck and two-car garage, explained project engineer Joe Bianchine. The lot would also include a small, fenced-in children’s play area.
Owners would belong to a condo association and pay a fee for “outside care” such as maintenance, lawn care and snow removal. The condos would be heated by propane gas and connected to village water and sewer.
Village Clerk Sheristin “Sher” Tedesco said using just a $130,000 assessment per condo, the new project would generate $10,800 in new property tax revenue for the village and about $4,000 in additional water and sewer taxes.
Bianchine said if the project gets the go-ahead the developer would build one condo as a model-home to market the units and continue to build more as buyers come forward.
Mayor Rick Nelson encouraged the board to visit Brunswick Meadows as he did, tour the facilities and talk to residents to get an idea of the new project before them.
“I spoke with a resident who had been living there a year and she seems very happy,” Nelson said. “They would be building those identical units here in Stillwater.”
Village Board expected to revisit condo proposal in April
The Village Board expects to review the first draft of the new developer’s application in April. In the meantime, the board voted itself lead agency for completing the New York State environmental review process.
What might make this project more appealing to the village than the Camelot residential/retail proposal, first proposed in July 2014, is that it is much small in scope. Camelot first proposed 40 luxury apartments for the land. When residents asked that retail space be included as well, the project was changed to 35 apartments and 6,000 square feet of retail space.
Following a public hearing in which several residents complained about the impact 35-40 apartment units would have on traffic, the school system and the neighborhood, some Trustees asked that the project be scaled back to 24 apartments with retail space. Camelot President Dennis DeGennaro said the project would not be economically viable at that size. The apartments would have rented for $800-$1,000 per month.
After some two years of consideration, the apartment/retail project was ultimately rejected by the village as “too dense” for the land and the neighborhood. The special use permit was denied in September 2015.
The proposed construction lot on North Hudson Avenue formerly housed the American Linen plant. The plant originally started operating as the Stillwater Knitting Co. and merged with the Ballston Spa Knitting Co. in 1924. It last manufactured hunting and boot socks before closing its doors in 1965. The building was later razed, and the land has remained vacant for many years.