Green Island

Developers of a marina, housing and entertainment project on a former oil tank farm on the Hudson River are seeking about $22 million in tax breaks through the Green Island Village Industrial Development Agency. 

Peter Luizzi & Bros. Contracting of Albany is currently building the $76 million project on the southern tip of Center Island, an island between Green Island and Troy. 

Located south of the Green Island Bridge, the 11.2-acre site was once home to King Fuels, which closed in 2008.  An oil terminal first started operating on the island in 1918.  The north side of the island —which is being dubbed Starbuck Island for the Luizzi project— is occupied by the Rivers Edge Apartments. 

The project calls for four-story residential buildings, with 276 units and about 506 parking spaces.  It also calls for a marina, an amphitheater, and a clubhouse with a restaurant. 

This month, Luizzi filed an application under an affiliate — South Island Apartments LLC — with the village IDA for reductions during an 18-year period for local property taxes (an estimated $18.9 million reduction) , state sales and use taxes (about $2.6 million), and state mortgage recording taxes (about $560,000). 

Under the application, the project would pay about 55 percent of its projected school district property taxes, 35 percent of its projected village property taxes, and 10 percent of its Albany County property taxes. 

Sean Ward, executive assistant to Green Island Mayor Ellen M. McNulty-Ryan, said the village hired Saratoga Springs-based consultants Camoin Associates to review the IDA application and assess the project's economic impact and whether the requested tax breaks are cost effective. 

Camoin has done economic reviews of a number of high-profile projects in the Capital Region, including the proposed Amazon warehouse in Schodack, Rensselaer County; the potential cleanup and redevelopment of the decaying former Al Tech Specialty Steel plant in Colonie; the reorganization of the New York Racing Association; and a mixed-use project at Fourth and Congress streets in Troy to be built by Rosenblum Companies. 

On Tuesday, M&T Bank announced it had approved financing for Luizzi to continue the project. 

"Starbuck Island will be one of the most transformative privately developed projects undertaken in the Capital Region in years," said Beth Beshaw, M&T Bank market president for the Capital Region. " An abandoned brownfield on a Hudson River island will soon become a waterfront destination." 

Besha said the bank financing will support construction of 68 market-rate luxury apartments and 40 senior apartments. 

The Green Island IDA is holding a public hearing on the Center Island project at 4 p.m. Feb. 12 at village offices, 19 George St.

Michael Alix, a vice president with Luizzi, said Tuesday that the first of four residential buildings, which is currently under construction, could be ready for occupancy by July, with the second building projected to be completed and available sometime this fall. 

He said the relatively mild winter prior to last week's snowstorm allowed construction crews to get ahead of schedule. 

According to the IDA application, Luizzi has currently spent about $5 million, including the purchase and environmental cleanup of the property. 

In 2017, the state Department of Environmental Conservation accepted the project into the Brownfield Cleanup Program, making the work eligible for tax credits that could cover part of the expense to clean up the parcel, and construct new buildings and other infrastructure. 

Pollution tests of the site done in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2016 found levels of barium, lead, mercury and other chemicals in the ground and water. 

Last year, DEC oversaw the removal of tons of tainted soil up to 30 feet deep that had been contaminated by fuel oil and other chemicals.  Investigations in 2017 found a 3-foot-thick layer of liquid petroleum about 25 feet underground. 

State-ordered tests also found that the site was made up of as much as 28 feet of "historic fill materials including ash, brick, glass and other waste materials."