ME TOO...I was ready to jump off a bridge!!

From what I hear, Walgreens bought out the remainder of the lease for Newest Lunch. When the building is ready to come down, Newest Lunch will leave and not re-locate/re-open again.

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

ROTTERDAM
Capitol Plaza nearly cleared of businesses
Walgreens drugstore will be built on property
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

Like the rest of the nearly barren Capitol Plaza, the storefront at Newest Lunch remained dark Tuesday evening.
Inside, a scattering of booths and kitchen equipment was all that remained of the bar and grill that once bustled in the 1950s-era shopping center. The restaurant was one of the final businesses moved from Capitol Plaza last month, as HDB Ventures prepares to take ownership of the soon-to-be demolished building at Curry Road and Altamont Avenue.
    “If you drive by,
you’ll find an empty plaza,” said Bob Blank, a partner with HDB Ventures.
    Of the 15 businesses once located in the building, only Alesio Chiropractic remains. Blank said the owner of the plaza — Jeff Musiker — is relocating the business.
    Blank expects to complete the purchase of the building later this month and demolish it in late February or early March.
    The site should take about a week to clear, with work beginning on a 4,550-square-foot Walgreens drugstore shortly thereafter. Blank said the new drugstore should be built within five months and is anticipated to open sometime during the fall.
    Members of the town Planning Board approved the project in July 2006, but stipulated that the developer would need to acquire an eighth of an acre nearby the shopping center to ensure adequate parking. A dispute over the strip’s ownership stalled the project for nearly a year.
    In April, officials from the state Department of Transportation determined that the land belonged to Schenectady County, which promptly sold the parcel to HDB Ventures for $25,000. The sale wasn’t confi rmed until December.
    Meanwhile, the last vestiges of the shopping center are being liquidated, said George Keleshian, who is running the sale of all remaining equipment in the building for Musiker.
    Keleshian said any item not sold Monday will be moved at an auction on Jan. 17.
    Keleshian said an assortment of items from the New- est Lunch — including most of the bar signs and even the bar fixtures — have already been snapped up by restaurant owners around the Capital Region.
    Still, he said thousands of dollars worth of commercial kitchen equipment, restaurant furnishings and other remnants — everything from the doors to air conditioning units — remain to be sold.
    “Everything is being sold for 10 cents to 15 cents on the dollar,” he said.

Okay...it has been amost SIX MONTHS since all of the businesses located in the old capital plaza relocated. When will that beast come down? When is Walgreens going to start their development?

Funny, I was just talking to another business man about this yesterday - there's NOTHING happening ... it's like the entire project just died.  The property looks like hell, it's time to $hit or get off the pot for Walgreens and the development  company.  CVS on Altamont and Chrisler is humming right along - on schedule for a fall opening (or sooner based on their progress).

It's like the building on the corner of Curry Road and Guilderland Ave.. CVS bought it...and the property, that looks like it's ready to fall down with a good wind, just sits there....empty!!!

Quoted from bumblethru

It's like the building on the corner of Curry Road and Guilderland Ave.. CVS bought it...and the property, that looks like it's ready to fall down with a good wind, just sits there....empty!!!

The problem with this one is that CVS needs the property behind it for a parking lot.  Until that happens they can't build, and the owners aren't willing to sell at this time.

I would have thought that CVS would have bought all of the properties all at the same time. It could be years before the other property owners get their price and sell. So in the mean time we have to look at this deteriorating building every time we go through that intersection.

The hold up, as I understand it, was First Class Products and 4 Corners Pizza who have a LONG term lease with First Class.  The cost to buy them out was VERY high, making it not as attractive to CVS.

They can wait it out longer than a tanking pizza shop.

I think you are correct. I remember hearing that as well. I don't really know if the pizza place is 'tanking'. I don't go there so I don't know.

It would be nice if CVS at least tore the bulding down. In fact I think the town should insist on it, if they can. It looks absolutely terrible, right along with Capital Plaza, the old Grand Union, Eckhards(guilderland ave.), the library on the corner of guilderland and Roselawn and the Curry Rd shopping plaza beast. And how many years will Crounse's old farm house and barn by I88 remain standing?

CVS should be given a time limit to fixing up the property whether they are in the building or not.........AND----it should have specs from our impressive town comp plan.......

So what is the deal with Capitol Plaza?  According to the January article, Walgreens should be nearly complete by now.  It's a prime location so even in a difficult environment or if the Walgreens deal is dead, I would imagine there would be plenty of players in the wings.  All the same, I'm surprised at the lack of activity since they cleared out the tenants.

I thought the hold up was DOT and Walgreens needing some of the public road for parking. There was something about the street that runs in back of the Plaza that runs from Curry to Altamont. I don't recall exactly...it was such a long time ago.

It should be called Stall-greens......my observation is the waiting for sewers and the like......

Quoted from bumblethru

I thought the hold up was DOT and Walgreens needing some of the public road for parking. There was something about the street that runs in back of the Plaza that runs from Curry to Altamont. I don't recall exactly...it was such a long time ago.

I thought that the exemption had been approved?  Or am I misremembering that?