GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland Zoning Board of Appeals recently approved the special-use permits for a long-in-the-works development across the street from Town Hall and for a $55 million cancer center near Crossgates Mall. 

On Nov. 6, the board approved Columbia Development to build for New York Oncology Hematology the 105,000-square-foot regional center to be located between the Hilton hotel and the future Costco on Western Avenue.

The board also approved Columbia’s variance request to allow for 117 fewer parking spaces than is called for by the town code. The cancer center will now have 558 spots: 532 standard and 26 handicapped. 

NYOH, the largest outpatient cancer provider in the Capital Region, is currently located on Patroon Creek Boulevard in Albany. That center is spread across several floors, which doesn’t allow for proper patient flow, the town’s planning board was told in January. 

The project was originally proposed as a 120,000-square-foot center, but fewer tenants than expected decided to make the move to Guilderland, shrinking the development to a 105,000-square-foot facility.

In addition to the change in building size, other changes made to the project were the reduction in parking spots, the addition of green space, and the replacement of an underground stormwater storage system with a surface retention pond.

Approximately 230 on-site employees, 30 of whom will be physicians, will provide “radiation treatment, chemotherapy and comprehensive cancer care,”  according to the project narrative; the center will operate from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, and Saturday morning from  7 a.m. to noon. 

The three-story facility will take approximately 16 months to build.

Twenty West

Also on Nov. 6, the zoning board approved a mixed-use development across Western Turnpike from the town hall. 

The project was first brought to the town some five years ago. 

The developer at the time sought to build a 14,740-square-foot building that would include space for his law firm, his wife’s dentistry office, a restaurant, a nail salon, and one apartment. That special-use permit expired. 

The project then changed hands and the new developer, Dr. Karamdeep Singh, came to the planning board in February with an out-of-compliance 34,000-square-foot building with commercial space and 14 apartments. 

The following month, Singh was back before the planning board with a code-compliant proposal. Singh is under contract to purchase the 1.82-acre site from original developer Michael Davidson. 

Singh’s two-and-a-half story, 25,000-square-foot structure will have commercial space on the first floor and six apartments each on the second and third floors.