College Park

College Park

Description

The College Park project entails the construction of a 240,000 square foot building. The site, located in Schenectady, New York, is a Brownfield site and is part of a larger comprehensive revitalization plan sponsored by the City of Schenectady. The goal is to spur economic growth in an area suffering from a high degree of unemployment and disinvestment. The planned building will house the national headquarters of a large grocery chain with additional space to accommodate planned future employment growth of the company. Total estimated development costs are $39.7 million and completion is expected in late 2009.

Investment Type

Enterprise’s investment provides both a subordinate loan and equity financing to the project, totaling $10 million and utilizing New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC).

Market

Located in Albany’s Capital Region, Schenectady is an area with high rates of poverty and unemployment, older housing stock, and a population with below average levels of income and education. The project will make use of vacant land by adding office space and employment opportunities to the community. The City of Schenectady and numerous local community and economic development organizations support the development.

Community Impact

College Park will bring a variety of benefits to the immediate neighborhood, as well as to the entire community. In addition to improving the appearance and character of the neighborhood, the project will provide jobs for area residents, add to Schenectady’s recent downtown improvement efforts and support the city’s overall economic development strategies. The development is expected to create over 125 temporary construction jobs and create and/or retain approximately 375–500 permanent jobs.

Sponsor

The sponsor/developer for the project is the Galesi Group, a local development company established in 1969. They have successfully developed numerous office buildings in the Albany-Schenectady market.

Investor

Bank of America Community Development Corporation (BACDC) provided a $3.7 million loan and $6.3 million in equity through a partnership with Enterprise, which provided an allocation of $10 million of NMTCs to the transaction. Additional financing of approximately $13 million was provided by the Investor through its CDE using NMTCs. BACDC, a wholly–owned subsidiary of Bank of America, N.A., conducts real estate development and investment in low– and moderate–income communities across the nation. Bank of America is one of the world’s largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.