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"It has been nearly eight years since the City of Batavia identified Samuel Savarino and his Savarino Companies as its developer for a run-down 3.3-acre downtown parcel known as Ellicott Station that formerly held a construction firm and a tire shop.
It would take another six years before construction actually began in May 2022 on the $24.9 million project, designed to redevelop the vacant and abandoned industrial brownfield site into 55 affordable apartments, a restaurant, a brewery and an events center.
The venture consists of a $20.7 million residential component and a $4.2 million commercial element at the former Santy's Tires property and the former Soccio & Della Penna building.
Since then, though, the effort went off the rails when Savarino announced in late August that the company would be shutting down, putting the rest of the project in limbo, at best, or in jeopardy, at worst.
The developer had already defaulted on terms of its incentive agreement with the Genesee County Economic Development Center, and has faced intense criticism and the threat of legal action by some potential tenants. And since the project has not been completed, GCEDC is now seeking to recapture $1.1 million in sales, property and mortgage-recording tax breaks from Savarino. The developer also owes $35,000 in taxes to the school district.
"We effectively are out of this project at this point because of the default," GCEDC CEO Steven Hyde said. "We got involved because of the potential to redevelop a blighted area in our downtown corridor. But the project has come to a screeching halt at this point."
But Savarino said he hasn't stopped working on the project, even though he has no employees. Construction on the six-story residential structure is about 75% complete, he said, and workers are finishing up the building exterior and winterizing it to ensure it is weather-tight, in collaboration with the tax-credit investor and Five Star Bank as the lender.
"The last thing we need is for this thing to become a broken eyesore in our downtown for years to come," Hyde said. "I know Sam is certainly participating and cooperating with them."
In the meantime, Savarino said he is working with Genesee County, city and state officials, as well as his lender and investors, to bring in a new developer or developers as project sponsor to replace him. He said "there is a particular entity that we're working with," but would not identify it, other than to say it is not his brother, Rob Savarino, who has picked up a couple of other former Savarino projects.
"Our only hope is that it does get picked up by a developer and they continue to focus on making it workforce housing, so that people who are employed have good housing stock," Hyde said.
However, the financial structure of the project is complex, involving low-income housing tax credits, brownfield tax credits, other assistance from New York State Homes and Community Renewal, a loan from the state Housing Trust Fund, and a grant from Empire State Development Corp.
"Getting the building buttoned up is one thing," Savarino said. "A new sponsor is another."
From the article: "Genesee County's economic development arm was expected to approve more than $5.6 million in tax breaks Thursday for dairy products company HP Hood to expand its processing operations at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park in Batavia in a $120 million project that will create 48 new jobs.
Hood acquired Dairy Farmers of America's 363,000-square-foot former yogurt plant for $60 million in 2017. It then expanded the facility at 5140 Ag Park Drive by adding another 100,000 square feet, making it the biggest landowner in the agricultural park with its 448,185-square-foot facility.
Its new plan calls for a 32,500-square-foot expansion to handle 7,500 more pallet positions in the automated storage and retrieval system of its refrigerated warehouse. It will also add new processing systems and other upgrades, boosting production of extended shelf-life products such as dairy and nondairy drinks and creamers. The project, which begins this year, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025."
"Grand Island developer David Mazur will receive nearly $3.9 million in tax breaks from Genesee County for a $15 million market-rate apartment project that will create 80 new residential units in Batavia.
Mazur, who owns Northstar Development of WNY, wants to construct an apartment complex called MedTech Landing, with 13 buildings and more than 100,000 square feet of space, featuring a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.
Plans for the complex at 53 MedTech Drive – located off Route 48, across from Genesee Community College – call for six 12-unit buildings and one eight-unit building, plus six six-car garages.
The developer had asked the Genesee County Economic Development Center for $720,000 in sales tax relief for up to $9 million in eligible purchases, plus $120,000 in mortgage-recording tax breaks and a property-tax abatement that will save $3.03 million over 20 years.
The project was approved by the town, so the two-phased construction is expected to begin in late spring, with completion in 24 months.
As part of the project, Mazur will invest $50,000 per year over 20 years – or up to $1 million – into the Batavia Home Fund, which provides grants to support the construction of homes and the rehab of existing residential properties to bolster the local housing stock.
County officials note that the proposed project helps to address a projected housing shortage of 4,800 units over 20 years, as estimated by the Genesee County Housing Needs Assessment. IDAs in Erie County typically do not provide tax breaks to market-rate housing projects, unless they are for seniors, part of a redevelopment of an abandoned or underused building or located in an economically distressed area.
The project – similar to what Mazur has done in Grand Island and Tonawanda – was originally called Countryside Apartments when it first came to the GCEDC last year, but Mazur changed its name because of potential confusion with an unrelated project by the same name in Pembroke.
That $15.7 million project, by Michael Schmidt of Akron, calls for 96 apartments in four 24-unit buildings, totaling 84,384 square feet of space. Each 21,096-square-foot building would include eight one-bedroom and 16 two-bedroom units.
It was approved by GCEDC last October for $2.9 million in tax breaks over 20 years. Work will begin in the spring, and each phase will be operational within six months."
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