Troy

After a number of residents and business owners voiced their unanimous support, the Troy Industrial Development Agency Friday morning approved $5.3 million in tax breaks for the $18 million mixed-use project at Fourth and Congress streets to be built by Rosenblum Companies.

The project is expected to create just one new job, something that did give some IDA members pause. But an economic impact study by Camoin Associates estimated 22 new jobs would be created, and Jeff Mirel, Rosenblum's executive vice president, said that commercial spaces in the building likely would create a number of new jobs.

He also pointed out that the developer had already demolished one building that otherwise would have been done by the city at its own expense, and that Rosenblum also was undertaking an environmental cleanup of the site.

"IDAs get beat up because people perceive we're bearing risks that should be taken by the developer," said board member Brian Carroll. "I'm not all that happy with this (payment in lieu of taxes agreement). But I'm impressed with the people who are here today" to speak in support.

Guha Bala, president of Velan Ventures and cofounder with his brother of video game company Vicarious Visions, said that among the 40 people who work for his new company, many had come from outside the area and all had chosen to live downtown.

"Families are making their homes here," he said. "They've chosen to send their kids to public schools."

Tom Nardacci, who founded the Troy Innovation Garage on Fourth Street, an incubator and co-working space for "creative companies," said the 115 people who currently work there make an average of $65,000 a year, a $7.5 million boost to the city.

Commercial real estate broker Deanna Dal Pos called Rosenblum's earlier downtown project, The News Apartments, "absolutely top notch," a sentiment shared by several other speakers. Rosenblum is nearing completion of the project that turned the former Record newspapers building into 101 market rate apartments.

With Friday's approvals, Rosenblum is moving ahead with the five-story project with ground-floor retail and 52 apartments.

"We'll start some work possibly before the end of the year," Mirel said after the meeting. The project will take 18 months to complete.

Also Friday, Troy Planning and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Strichman said Visions Hotels' plan to build a Tru by Hilton on a parcel bordered by Congress Street and Sixth and Seventh avenues was in doubt.

"They had issues" with the Hilton brand, he said. "They say it's on hold. It's been on hold so long we're probably not going to see it happen."

Meanwhile, a groundbreaking ceremony is planned next week for a $10 million project to turn the former Marshall Ray building at 701 River St into apartments. It would be the latest in a series of warehouses along River Street in the North Central neighborhood to undergo such a conversion.

Redburn Development, which previously converted the nearby School 1 into apartments, announced last September it would work with building owner Jacob Reckess of Poughkeepsie-based PAZ Health Care to turn the 100,000-square-foot building into 90 apartments and 5,000 square feet of restaurant/retail space.