Hi! Until recently I was news editor of The Alt (RIP). For the last few months I’ve been covering Troy, where I live, pretty extensively. While I plan my next steps, I thought I’d continue to at least attend major city meetings and blog about them once a week (this is the first one). If you’ve got tips/comments/thoughts feel free to email me: luke.s.nathan@gmail.com.

Troy City Council Finance Committee, 9/6

Land bank update. The finance committee (and, later the same night, the council) approved a new memorandum of understanding between the city and the Troy Community Land Bank, a quasi-governmental entity largely funded by the state attorney general’s office.

The MOU itself is rather uninteresting—it basically formalizes a partnership that has existed since TCLB’s creation several years ago—and councilmembers didn’t delve into its particulars. But they did take the opportunity to discuss TCLB’s accomplishments and plans with its director Tony Tozzi, who was in attendance.

Tozzi seemed particularly proud of TCLB’s ongoing partnership with Habitat for Humanity Capital District, which is currently overhauling two properties on Fifth Ave. between 101st and 102nd streets.

Source: TCLB’s March 2018 annual meeting presentation

According to Tozzi, TCLB is “in the process of selling so many of our properties”—all but two—“that we’re running out of inventory.” He attributed the bump in demand to the efforts of Greg Tobin of Coldwell Banker Prime Properties, whose real-estate listing services TCLB procured earlier this year.

That said, it seems TCLB is now charting what Tozzi described as a “new path.” In the past, TCLB has pursued two primary courses of action for the dilapidated properties it acquires from the city (or occasionally from banks as donations) before selling them: demolition or “stabilization,” which you might define as attending to a building’s structural issues but not really doing much beyond that.

Now, Tozzi said Thursday, TCLB is poised to perform more extensive renovations at 791 and 899 River St., using the buildings “to introduce alternative rehab designs” that might inspire people—future buyers and renovators, perhaps—to “think outside the box.” The latter property, a rather “tired-looking,” vinyl-sided home, will be refashioned as an “urban cottage,” Tozzi said.

899 River St. (June 2018)

It seems the general idea behind TCLB opting to renovate, rather than stabilize, its properties is to attract a broader pool of buyers.

In other news, two buildings in what was once envisioned as a four-parcel assemblage for a future transit-oriented development likely will be demolished by mid-November. But the privately owned building at 871 River St. is tied up in a bankruptcy proceeding, which poses a challenge for acquisition, Tozzi said.

TCLB is applying for nearly $1.8 million in new funding from the AG’s office. In its proposal, which deputy mayor Monica Kurzejeski said would be submitted on Friday (9/7), TCLB details plans to expand its efforts into Lansingburgh. To date, it has focused largely, though not exclusively, on North Central.

Reverter madness. Almost 50 years ago, the city sold a large parcel of land off of Oakwood Ave. to Beltrone Construction of Colonie for $3,500. The deed contained the following provision:

This conveyance is made subject to the condition that a building shall be erected of such type of construction as to conform with building, housing and fire prevention codes within one (1) year after the date of the deed. If the purchaser, its successor, or assigns shall fail to comply with this [condition] the City of Troy has a right to re-enter the property without refunding the purchase price.

This building was not built within that one-year time frame, or ever. The property has since changed hands, and it is now poised to change hands yet again: Yonna Realty intends to sell it to an entity related to the Troy Housing Authority, which would use the still-undeveloped land for its Martin Luther King Apartments revitalization project.

Mayor Patrick Madden’s administration asked the city council to authorize him to release the reverter clause. The city’s corporation counsel, James Caruso, cast this as something like a formality, since a laches defense would likely stymie any attempt by the city, after a half-century of doing nothing, to take back the property.

And anyway, the city probably wouldn’t want to take back the property, because, councilmembers agreed on Thursday, this affordable housing project seems beneficial for the city.

But after councilmember Mark McGrath questioned whether the council has the authority to authorize the mayor to release the reverter, it agreed to table the resolution, pending future communications between the city’s corporation counsel and the development team’s title company.

The discussion was contentious and sort of hard to follow, but apparently the mayor did not want to sign off on the reverter release without first obtaining council approval, at least in part because code enforcement, which typically inspects properties to verify that work outlined in the buyer’s proposal has been completed before approving the release, could not, in this instance, say that the work had been done.

A member of the development team in attendance said a delay of a few weeks wouldn’t necessarily harm the project’s prospects.

Opioid lawsuit. The finance committee and the council at its regular meeting authorized the mayor to hire the law firm of Dreyer Boyajian LLP “to investigate the viability of claims against the manufacturers and/or distributors of prescription opiates and, if appropriate, commence litigation” against them.

Dreyer Boyajian already represents Albany, Schenectady, and Plattsburgh in similar efforts. It will work for Troy via a contingency fee arrangement, taking a quarter of the city’s final winnings (if there are any).