VOORHEESVILLE — On a dreary Saturday afternoon this past weekend, some 300 people showed up to the site of a shuttered Stewart’s Shop on South Main Street in the village to offer feedback while hoping to hear what was in store for the site.

Since April, various limited-liability companies associated with Ed Mitzen have scooped up 42 South Main, the former Stewart’s that came with a $350,000 price tag, and 43 South Main St., a mixed-use building that was purchased in early September for $150,000. Mitzen also said he’d recently closed on the apartment building at 40 South Main St., whose four units were listed for sale at about $310,000.

“We’re going to try to figure out some really kind of cohesive, comprehensive plan for redeveloping this part of the community,” Mitzen told the assembled crowd on Oct. 30.

“I’ve been asked a lot about timing,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do with [village attorney] Rich [Reilly], and the planning and zoning boards, but we’re hoping to be, you know, up within 18 months or so.”

A release put out by Business for Good Saturday afternoon said the organization “aims to be open by the end of 2022.”

Asked by The Enterprise about the construction timeline, Connie Frances Avila, the not-for-profit’s chief brand officer explained in a statement that the extended construction period is an estimate, for two reasons.

“First, we need time to review and digest the survey responses; we really want to know what the community would like to see in this location,” Avila said. “In addition, our timeline considers the work being done by the [village], including work on their sewer system (so as not to keep the community in constant construction.)”

The village is looking to have the scaled-back version of the sewer project first proposed two years ago be shovel-ready by 2023.

The September 2019 sewer project was supposed to service 175 properties and cost $3.6 million — the current version will serve 68 properties and cost $1.049 million. Seventy-eight properties — 50 new and 18 existing — would be eligible to tie into the new system. The proposal is to add 50 parcels along Main Street and Voorheesville Avenue. And the 18 Pleasant Street homes that flow into an existing leaching field behind Village Hall would also be tied into the new system.

Mitzen, a graduate of Clayton A. Bouton High School, who went on to do very well for himself in the healthcare-marketing industry, started his not-for-profit foundation last year.

Among its other good deeds, the organization buys up businesses, typically restaurants, pays the workers a decent wage and foots the entire bill on their medical benefits. Any leftover profit goes to local charities. 

Mitzen on Saturday highlighted a number of the foundation’s established or in-the-works businesses that are operating under a similar model: a bakery in Saratoga; a well-known restaurant in the Spa City; and the former Lombardo’s restaurant in Albany, which is being converted into the second  Hattie’s Chicken Shack.

As for Voorheesville, it remains to be seen what will occupy the space of the former Stewart’s. The intent of the Oct. 30 event was to gather feedback from locals, as Business for Good employees made their way through the event with iPads asking the day’s 300 attendees to fill out a 14-question survey about their dining preferences. The same survey is available online through the organization’s website.

It’s been seven months since Mitzen was first before the village planning commission, explaining he’d come to terms with Stewart’s for its property.

In August, Stephanie Marotta-Johnson, a project manager for Business For Good, presented the planning commission a “basic concept plan” of what the not-for-profit wanted to do, stressing, “again, this is ... a draft of what is proposed.”

She said it would be a complete teardown, with the current Stewart’s Shop being razed and replaced with a single-story structure with “potentially maybe a rooftop area as well for seating — that’s why getting rid of the poles would be good,” Marotta-Johnson said.

Northern Barrell 

During that same August meeting where the planning commission received an update from Business For Good, it also approved a scaled-back special-use permit for Northern Barrell Brewing,

Guilderland resident Charles Rosenstein had initially proposed a craft brewery and restaurant for his 10 North Main St. location, but had to put the brewery on hold due to septic-system limitations. 

Rosenstein told The Enterprise by email on Monday that construction is due to start this week at the North Main Street location. 

“We hope to be open by the end of the year or January 2022,” he wrote.