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Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency Regular Meeting Minutes November 29, 2018 A regular meeting of the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency was held on Thursday, November 29, 2018 at the 333 West Washington Street, Syracuse, New York in the large conference room on the first floor.
Patrick Hogan called the meeting to order at 8:00 am with the following:
PRESENT:
Patrick Hogan Steve Morgan Kevin Ryan Janice Herzog Fanny Villarreal Victor Ianno DELAYED:
Susan Stanezyk
ALSO PRESENT:
Julie Cerio, OCIDA, Executive Director Genevieve Suits, Secretary Nate Stevens, Treasurer Karen Doster, Recording Secretary Tony Rivizzigno, Barclay Damon Law Firm Christopher Andreucci, Harris Beach (via conf call) Joe Goethe, Cameron Group, LLC Adam Smith, DOT Foods, Inc.
Connor Head, DOT Foods, Inc.
Kathy Alaimo, Syracuse Label Co.
Christopher Andreucci, Harris Beach John Ciampa, JMT Ken Bush, Onondaga County Legislature Lauryn LaBorde, Syracuse Central School District APPROVAL OF REGULAR MEETING MINUTES — NOVEMBER 6, 2018 Upon a motion by Victor Ianno, seconded by Janice Herzog, the OCIDA Board approved the regular meeting minutes of November 6, 2018. Motion was carried.
TREASURER’S REPORT Nate Stevens gave a brief review of the Treasurer’s Report for the month of November 2018. Upon a motion by Victor anno, seconded by Fanny Villarreal, the OCIDA Board approved the Treasurer’s Report for the month of November 2018. Motion was carried.
Nate Stevens gave a brief review of the Payment of Bills Schedule #425.
Upon a motion by Janice Herzog, seconded by Victor Ianno, the OCIDA Board approved the Payment of Bills Schedule #425 for $1,200.31. Motion was carried.
The Conflict of Interest statement was circulated and there were no comments.
Julie Cerio stated the old PILOT schedule is included in the Board packet and we do PILOTs differently now because the Authority Budget Office has put new requirements on us. Joe Goethe stated he is a partner with Hinsdale Road Group and Cameron Group. He stated they just opened the Tru Hotel. He stated one of their goals was to bring people in from outside the community. He stated Tru has 80% of their people staying from outside NYS. He stated they currently have 487,000 sq ft and the reason they need to extend this is because they have 2 more building pads they are working on. He stated Upstate is expanding their practice in the western suburbs and much needed medical practice. He stated they are building a 25,000 sq ft mixed use medical facility that Upstate will be expanding practices and bringing in new doctors. He stated they have created almost 400 full time jobs and 500 construction jobs. He stated the impact has been great on the community and improved the transportation in area. He stated they would like to extend the sales tax abatement for another year and hopefully they will be done by next year with the final building completed.
Steve Morgan asked if everything is there except for Upstate pad. Joe Goethe stated yes and available upfront has about 20,000 sq ft of construction.
Steve Morgan stated he is not sure if Cameron Group or another commercial entity purchased residential units on Hinsdale Road and asked if that is possible development site as well. Joe Goethe stated Hinsdale Road Group owns the first 2 houses on the right and they are evaluating putting in office space there. He stated they built a new office space to put their office there but somebody liked it and they are now leasing it. He stated there are 2 houses at the start across from the entrance that they are going to redevelop and they have talked to the Town about it. He stated they don’t own the other ones.
Steve Morgan asked if there one house left on Hinsdale. Joe Goethe stated yes and they would have like to have had that property but couldn’t make economic sense of it.
Joe Goethe stated Longhouse Steakhouse draws repeat customers from Cortland and Binghamton.
Kevin Ryan asked what is bringing the people in from out of state. Joe Goethe stated there are a lot of families and teams staying there. He stated instead of a pool they put in a sport court which is great for kids and teams. He stated they have basketball, lax throwbacks, mini hockey, volleyball and a lot of activities for families and sports teams. He stated club teams stay with them and general business travel. He stated a lot of people staying are going to Welch Allyn, Tessy Plastics and the western suburbs because the only alternative on the west is to stay in Auburn. He stated people want to be closer to the airport and Albany area.
Patrick Hogan asked if the stats of 80% outside NYS are from the hotel. Joe Goethe stated yes. He stated about 50% of Costco’s memberships are outside the Camillus area and 30% outside Onondaga County. He stated they are going to do a little over $90 million this year. He stated the Movie Tavern is doing great and they draw from everywhere.
Victor Ianno asked when this first started. Joe Goethe stated they bought the property in 2005. He stated they went through a couple recessions, lost some tenants and then they landed Costco. Upon a motion by Kevin Ryan, seconded by Victor Ianno, the OCIDA Board approved a resolution authorizing an extension of sales tax abatement. Motion was carried.
Julie Cerio stated Ultra Dairy is being taken off the agenda because they are still working through the SEQR process and will be back next month.
DOT FOODS, INC.
Nate Stevens stated a public hearing was held and there were no comments.
Steve Morgan asked if there was zero job creation on this project but an upgrade to the facility. Patrick Hogan stated he believes so but it was an upgrade to make it an attractive place for people to work. He stated there is competition for truck drivers.
Upon a motion by Kevin Ryan, seconded by Victor Ianno, the OCIDA Board approved a resolution authorizing Sales Tax Abatement. Motion was carried.
Nate Stevens stated a public hearing was held and there were no comments.
Julie Cerio stated Syracuse Label is buying land at the airpark which OCDC manages for the County. She stated OCDC has accepted their offer on the surrounding land around the cul de sac and a building that is there. She stated the contract details are being worked out. She stated she is incredibly happy with their continuing expansion.
(Sue Stanczyk arrived at meeting.) Upon a motion by Janice Herzog, seconded by Victor Ianno, the OCIDA Board approved a resolution authorizing adoption of the SEQR determination, authorizing Mortgage Recording Tax Abatement, authorizing Sales Tax Abatement and authorizing a PILOT Agreement. Motion was carried.
John Ciampa stated we are officially done with the buildings coming down. He stated they finished November 14. He stated there are still some final things. He stated all the things that went to landfills is gone and there is some concrete block that is relatively clean that DEC and EPA allowed to keep at the site but it needs to be crushed. He stated that will be done next weck. He stated there are a few clean up items but we are 99% done.
Victor Ianno asked the crushed concrete will be left on site. John Ciampa stated yes. He stated there are two areas that it will be put. He stated one pile is a little bit dirtier than the other so that one will have to go below ground when remediation is done. He stated the other pile can be put on the surface for various purposes.
Patrick Hogan asked if John Ciampa is still working hand in hand with DEC. John Ciampa stated yes and EPA. He stated there was a lot of back and forth but he thinks we have reached agreements.
Patrick Hogan asked if the blue site on the map of Roth is for development. John Ciampa stated yes.
John Ciampa stated the 8 pads from the buildings are still there. He stated at some point we will need to come up or be covered so that will be something we need to work through with the future developer.
Steve Morgan asked if the pads need to come up or be covered. John Ciampa stated yes because they tested for PCBs as well so they will need to come up. He stated it will cost about $200,000 for them to come up but it would be cheaper to cover them. He stated it depends on the future user how they might configure the site. He stated it could be parking area and would just need to be paved over and doesn’t need to come up at all.
Victor Ianno asked if they would be left alone until we know what is going to happen. John Ciampa stated yes.
Steve Morgan asked if the PCBs will ever go away after a certain amount of time. John Ciampa stated no. He stated some do go away over time but PCBs are stable and don’t go away. John Ciampa stated as part of the cleanup they initially took about 50 to 80 drums off site that were liquid drums. He stated they did that right away because they could potentially leak. He stated the remaining portion of the site had about 75-80 drums around the property and most were empty. He stated as part of the building demolition they sampled any solid drums and taking those off site. He stated one tested high for PCBs and is hazardous waste. He stated inside some of the buildings there were waste bins that also had material tested as hazardous waste and that went off on Tuesday. He stated besides doing the buildings the entire site was cleaned up in general. He stated the slabs became pretty clean and it was quite an effort to get all this done but these slabs are pretty much bare concrete at this point. He stated the site is bare except for the concrete rubble which they will crush up.
John Ciampa stated the site isn’t clearly defined because there were some historical parcels and things got reconfigured. He stated the entire property is about 23 acres and was all in the original Brownfield program. He stated when sampling was done there was quite a bit of contamination on certain portions of the site. He stated in discussions with DEC to clean up the central area will cost about $4,000,000. He stated DEC is willing to accept the site as part of their Superfund Program and do the clean up through that and they would pay for it. He stated we would modify our Brownfield application keeping about 13 acres in the Brownfield program. He stated the proposal has not been made to DEC yet but in discussions they are agreeable to it. Patrick Hogan asked if the bridge is part of the Loop the Lake. John Ciampa stated yes and will be under County DOT. He stated we will be doing some sampling when the final design is done. Victor Ianno stated DEC will accept and clean up the property relieving us of that responsibility. John Ciampa stated yes.
Victor Ianno asked if we are giving up title to those acres. John Ciampa stated we are still going to keep title to it. He stated when they get it cleaned up it will still be OCIDA’s property and uses will be based on their clean up level.
Victor Ianno stated at some point we will have the benefit of developing it or selling it. John Ciampa stated yes subject to DEC’s cleanup standards are.
Victor Janno asked if we can dictate the standard. John Ciampa stated no but we can have discussions with them. He stated at the very least it would be industrial purposes and it could be potentially passive recreational like a trail. He stated he thinks we would certainly have the ability to sit at the table with them and talk about where we might like it to go. Julie Cerio stated we could RFP for proposal for the blue area on the map and make the superfund part parking and trail. She stated their needs to be parking for the trail as well as a business.
John Ciampa stated the key to the use is what the potential exposure to people is. He stated if you cover things up with either clean soil or with pavement there isn’t much exposure potential. He stated you might get a property with a deed restriction that you can’t dig and you have to sample first. He stated there will be restrictions on it but in terms of a parking area, trails or nature center are to be determined.
John Ciampa stated the reason for removing a portion of the property from the Brownfield program is because DEC will need access to remove dirt. He stated rather than have them go through the commercial properties if that is developed, the property has a dirt road and exits at State Fair Boulevard.
Victor Ianno asked if when this is done everything on the map in blue will be clean and ready to go or do new developers still have to deal with it. John Ciampa stated that has to be decided by OCIDA on how far they go with remediation. He stated we can do a remediation plan so the developer has it and if they are going to develop the property they have to do certain cleanup activities or OCIDA could potentially do the cleanup then turn the property over. He stated if the developer does the cleanup they will get credit for that cleanup under the Brownfield Program which is one of the advantages of the program. He stated OCIDA is tax free so the Agency wouldn’t get any credit for it but doing the remediation would make the land more saleable. Victor Ianno asked how many land owners are next to the property and are they aware of what the Agency is doing. John Ciampa stated five or six and they are aware. He stated they have been subject to public notice and they get the notifications. He stated at certain steps DEC does notifications to a substantial mailing list and all the documents go to the library for review. Patrick Hogan stated thee is a lot of interest in this location and he has received calls from two people with significant investments in the whole area.
Steve Morgan asked how much remediation is left for the front 12-13 acres. John Ciampa stated we still have to do a final cleanup plan to DEC. He stated he estimated for the commercial area about $250,000 to $300,000, not counting the foundations which would be another couple hundred thousand.
Steve Morgan asked if about 2 feet of soil have to be removed. John Ciampa stated no but there are about 2 or 3 hot spots were we would need to do some excavation and there are areas that need to be capped. He stated the cap could consist of one foot of soil or could consist of pavement. He stated future developers could pave these areas and not have to do anything additional.
Victor Ianno asked if the property next to the Agency property should be looked at in case it goes up for auction or something were to happen to it. He stated it might be a great selling point if someone saw they could have access through the back. He stated it is a way of merchandising the property. Julie Cerio stated we can look into it.
John Ciampa stated as far as DEC’s commitment to doing this, there was a meeting and the regional director was there. He stated they have been in touch with Albany so we think there is some fairly high level of support at the Agency to do the cleanup.
Upon a motion by Kevin Ryan, seconded by Fanny Villarreal, the OCIDA Board adjourned the meeting at 8:36 am. Motion was carried.
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