Bids 171K CM Fox plans more senior housing
Bids $171K
CM Fox plans more senior housing
VOORHEESVILLE Potential for senior housing has increased the value of a piece of village property 12 fold.
A bid for 1.4 acres on Voorheesville Avenue for $171,000 from CM Fox Living Solutions was recently accepted by the village. That property was assessed by the town at $14,000 in 2007.
The land is vacant, said Deputy Mayor William Hotaling, and it hasnt been used for decades. It used to have a pump house, he said, but use of that well was discontinued in the 1970s when the village started using a water tower on Swift Road.
About a year ago, the village board took stock of its real property holdings and, so far, this is the only piece it has decided to sell, Hotaling said.
Earlier this summer, when the village first put the property up for sale, it received two bids one from CM Fox and the other from Paragon Prime Funding, said Karen Finnessey, the villages deputy clerk treasurer. Both offers were rejected because of contingencies requested by the bidders, she said. CM Fox, which had bid $160,000, required that the amount it would ultimately pay for the property would be dependent on the number of units it could build. Paragon Prime, which had bid $152,000, planned to build senior housing mixed with housing available to anyone, which is not generally allowed, Finnessey said.
The second round of bidding yielded only one offer $171,000 from CM Fox.
"We felt the need to be as aggressive as we could," said CM Fox owner Troy Miller of the $11,000 increase in his bid. It was supposed to be a sealed bidding process, he said, but since both offers were rejected the first time, they became public and the competition knew what his bid had been.
Miller was eager to buy the property because of the feedback he has been getting on his current project in the village, he said. Right now, CM Fox is building Severson Manor, a complex of nine townhouses for senior citizens near the Salem Hills development in Voorheesville. Miller has also completed a small senior-housing complex in Altamont.
The plan for the new property is for senior apartments, Miller said, which means that he would retain ownership of the building and rent the apartments. He expects to offer a range of sizes that will cost between $700 and $900 per month.
"I still have to go through the approval process before closing on the property," Miller said. "If I don’t get the approval, I don’t buy the property."
The plans will have to go before the village planning and zoning boards to be approved, which Miller hopes will happen within the next 60 days.
"He’s got to jump through all the hoops," said Hotaling. Of the plan, he added, "I think it’ll be a plus for the village."
