GUILDERLAND — After years of being held up by lawsuits, the remainder of a yearslong approval process to build a Costco Wholesale on Western Avenue is “moving forward relatively quickly,” according to Pyramid’s attorney.

With the town expecting to wrap up its end of the process in the next few months, it’s possible that the new year could be celebrated with a groundbreaking ceremony. 

Pyramid Management Group, the project developer, does not currently own all 16 acres that make up the future site of the planned price club; about a quarter of that acreage is largely roads owned by the town of Guilderland.

For Pyramid to begin construction, it needs the town’s Industrial Development Agency to condemn, take ownership, and then sell that 4.23 acres to the company. 

Pyramid’s IDA application made two requests: condemnation of the town-owned land and $2.2 million in tax breaks. The IDA approved the request in August of last year, but the process was interrupted by the fifth lawsuit looking to halt construction, which has since been resolved in favor of the town and Pyramid.

During the Sept. 24 meeting of the Guilderland Industrial Development Agency, Pyramid’s attorney, A. Joseph Scott, told IDA board members that “things are moving forward relatively quickly on the condemnation piece.” 

On Sept. 25 an Albany County court judge granted the IDA full authority to acquire the land, remove any existing deed restrictions, and to take over any rights to enforce those restrictions.

Scott said on Sept. 24, “We expect to be done with the acquisition in 60 days from early September. So that would make us early November to be done with the acquisitions.”

As for Pyramid being ready to break ground, the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment close to deadline. 

Scott explained that the IDA would be “in a position to file the acquisition map, so we will own the property and have our interest finalized with respect to the restrictions, both the deed restrictions and the restrictions that permit the parties to restrict adjoining parcels.”

He said the “second element of the condemnation proceeding is the making of the offer and the acceptance of the offer by the party owning the interest that’s being condemned.” Pyramid already owns all but four of the approximately 40 properties on the future project site. 

“And we have already sent out offer letters to the affected landowners, both with respect to the deed encumbrances and also with respect to the acquisition of the roads, the town roads,” Scott said. The IDA in June accepted an appraisal that valued the town-owned property at $686,000.

“And what needs to happen on that side, once we’ve gotten the letters out, they need to respond to those and make some decisions on how they want to proceed in connection with the offer that we’ve made them.”

Scott said the IDA is making the offer on behalf of Pyramid under the funding agreement that we've entered into with Pyramid,” which “is ultimately responsible for the payment.”