COLONIE — A three-story, 240,000-square-foot medical arts building is proposed for 21 acres on 4 and 6 Autopark Drive.
The plan, presented by engineer Daniel Hershberg, does require three, possibly four, waivers including exceeding the 20-foot maximum setback and allowing parking in the front lot.
There are also 1,200 parking spots with 76 banked spots proposed, which is shy of the 1,371 required by the town based on the square footage. To compare, the medical office building on Wade Road Extension is 260,000-square-foot and has 1,144 parking spots.
The fourth possible waiver is related to the orientation of the building. As per town code, a building’s main façade and front entrance must face Autopark, or west. But the north side of this building is proposed along Autopark. Hershberg said it was designed this way to make the front of the building more visible to people driving up to the building along Autopark. He did not, though, rule out shifting the building a bit, or to formally request a fourth waiver.
There are two lots under consideration, what will become Lot 4 and Lot 6. There is an existing warehouse on Lot 4 which will require an Open Development Area because it will need an easement through Lot 6 for access off Autopark Drive.
Richard Rosen, of 4 and 6 Autopark Drive, LLC, a subsidiary of Columbia Development, said there are not any set tenants at this time.
“We are assuming right now based on our design and multiple entrances we will have multiple tenants but the way healthcare is, things are changing,” he said during a virtual meeting of the Planning Board on Tuesday, June 9. “We want to be able to react to the market so we are not showing or explaining what exactly is going in the building but having done enough medical product so we are anticipating where the market is going and we are excited about this design.”
The presentation was a sketch plan review, the first step in the planning process. The project will have to come back to the Planning Board at least two more times — as well as completion of an environmental review and a traffic study — before construction can begin.
