Since it was officially made known Breonics will no longer be moving to Vista Technology Campus in Slingerlands, the Bethlehem Industrial Development Agency is seeking to remove the project’s enhanced abatement status.
BIDA Executive Director Tom Connelly said he was told by developers the Columbia 65 building would not be moving forward in the near future because Breonics is no longer interested in the location and there are no other prospects. The updates were presented at this month’s IDA meeting on Friday, April 25.
“I’m concerned about this, and principally because of Breonics,” said Connelly. “ Breonics is gone. Our enhanced abatement was keyed to Breonics. I don’t know if we would have given an enhanced abatement … actually I know we wouldn’t have given an enhanced abatement to a medical office building.”
Breonics was first announced as a potential tenant for Vista last March. The company would have occupied about 6,000 square feet of a 27,000-square-foot building to be constructed behind ShopRite.
Connelly said the Columbia 15 project is also in jeopardy. That project was also supposed to house Cornea Consultants, a surgical eye-care facility, but the project has not yet received approval from the state Health Department. Developer Joe Nicolla has said in the past he would not go forward with construction of the building until additional tenants were in place.
Site plan approval from the town’s Planning Board has lapsed on both projects. Planning Director Rob Leslie said all approved projects must begin construction within one year and be completed within two years. The developers can file for two 90-day extensions before the projects have to go back before the planning board.
Supervisor John Clarkson said the Columbia Development representatives met with him and Leslie to seek a zoning change from Mixed Economic Development. Clarkson said that discussion was tabled until a later date.
Developers do have a prospective technology tenant for Vista but said they are not ready to announce who it is. That tenant is apparently interested in occupying 85 Columbia, another building adjacent to where 65 Columbia is to eventually be built.
Connelly said he believed the IDA should go forward with terminating the advanced abatement status for 65 and 15 Columbia.
“I think it would be bad public relations if the developer were to come in with a different tenant, that didn’t have a similar scientific and research underpinning, and they were to get the enhanced abatement,” said Connelly.
Chairman Frank Venezia agreed.
Joseph Scott, bond counsel for both the town and BIDA, said the agency should be able to pull the enhanced abatement because the developer did not meet the criteria outlined in their application.
The IDA was originally pressed to move forward with the plan before everything with Breonics was final because the state was changing what projects could receive sales tax abatements. Scott advised “terminating further action with respect to the project.”
Connelly said he was concerned that none of the resolutions mentioned Breonics, but Scott said they were mentioned as criteria in the application, so they could move forward. He also recommended getting it in writing from the developer that the project is not going forward and then formally responding about the enhanced abatement being pulled.
Other IDA members recommended putting a rule in place for future projects, so as to be fair and make sure it wasn’t done on a case-by-case basis. Venezia said a good benchmark is to follow the same financial approval timeline for projects as the planning board does for site plans.
Scott said other IDA clients have a policy that gives developers one year. The IDA then reaches out to the developer for a status update, and if nothing has moved forward, they can apply for a one-year extension.
Venezia suggested crafting how the new policy will be worded over the next couple of weeks. The BIDA will then vote on it at the May meeting.