By DAN MINER
Observer-Dispatch
Posted Aug 07, 2010 @ 08:03 PM
Last update Aug 09, 2010 @ 09:29 PM
NICOLE L CVETNIC / Observer-Dispatch Producer Ruben Maldonado photographed at the Urban Headquarters Media & Performing Arts Facility on Broad Street, Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in Utica.
UTICA - The buildings purchased by Massachusetts developers Kenneth Rockett and Richard DeRosas could be politely described as fixer-uppers.
Their portfolio?
A dilapidated Broad Street warehouse, a long-vacant downtown commercial building and a fire-damaged 19th century mansion that has been stripped of its copper.
Yet the team plans to breathe new life into each building, using its own resources and a dollop of federal money for faÁade improvements. The men are following a model that won them plaudits for development work in a former industrial city in eastern Massachusetts.
"I canít turn my back on this," Rockett said of the Utica projects. "Itís a huge investment, and I have the ability to bring these projects online and get them completed."
The end-result of the projects remains to be seen, but the mere effort makes Rockett and DeRosas a rare entity in Utica ñ out-of-town developers looking to expand their local footprint.
Saddled with three projects that promise to be expensive and time-consuming, they actually are looking to expand their local presence, Rockett said.
Meanwhile, the teamís embrace of the cityís mix of historic character and affordability represents the fruition of long-held hopes for local officials.
"He sees the promise and the future for Utica and he believes in these projects as well as we do," Utica Mayor David Roefaro said of Rockett. "He senses, in time, the economy will get better and there will be a rebirth."
There are already signs of life in one of the developments ñ 807 Broad St., an address that sits in the shadow of Uticaís former industrial greatness.
A redemption center for recycling has taken up one storefront, while a performing arts facility called Urban Headquarters is preparing to open this week in another. In addition, a cafÈ, HQ Brew, is offering WiFi and free Internet.
Urban Headquarters will be devoted to art, film and music. Both that and the cafÈ will be managed by Ruben Maldonado, a Brooklyn native and producer.
"I've always dreamed of a place where people can come and polish up their act, before they get out there," Maldonado told the O-D recently of his vision for Urban Headquarters. The center will offer open mike nights, musical demos over speakers, screenings on flat-screen televisions and a variety of galleries and shows for artists and even clothing designers, he said.
Massachusetts project finished
To date, the team of Rockett and DeRosas has done most of its work in Massachusetts, most notably at the Blakely Building in downtown Lawrence.
They purchased the dilapidated but historic building in 2001 and eventually oversaw its $14.7 million transformation into 46 affordable-housing rental units and four retail stores.
The building has won or been nominated for several awards related to construction and the project generally, but there were challenges along the way.
News articles from 2004 in The Valley Patriot, a monthly newspaper in Massachusetts, describe opposition to the project from other residents.
They also describe the Lawrence City Council balking at a sale of a neighboring building because DeRosas had a federal tax lien of $65,457, which was then applied to the Blakely Building.
"To date, the Blakely building remains in serious disrepair,î wrote the storyís author, Tom Duggan. ìSo much so that the Lawrence fire department has declared it a hazardous building marking it with a large red ìXî to warn first responders that the building is not structurally safe."
DeRosas, who could not be reached for comment, paid off the lien, said Rockett, who described many of the difficulties with the process as political in nature.
But the project was completed, and heralded by The Valley Patriot in 2006 as an example of Lawrenceís renewed vibrancy.
The process was fairly typical of large-scale redevelopment projects, said Michael Sweeney, who was Lawrenceís planning director from 2004 until January 2009, when he took a job as deputy general counsel for the Massachusetts state Treasurerís office.
Sweeney was complimentary of the development team, DeRosas, in particular, whom he said was his major point of contact. The developers held community meetings and responded adequately to feedback from the Lawrence planning and zoning boards, he said.
"They seemed to understand the complexity of these projects,î Sweeney said. ìThey did as best they could while still making it a commercially viable project."
Rockett said the Lawrence apartments have been doing well and the retail space has filled up. He said the project has revitalized the whole block.
And they had plenty of help from taxpayers.
Seeking public subsidies
For the Blakely project, work was done in conjunction with the Volunteers of America. Nearly $2 million came from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, $1.5 million came in HOME funds administered by the city and the state awarded historic and low-income tax credits that generated $9 million for the project, according to a release from the housing partnership.
High pre-recession construction costs also caused Rockett and DeRosas to take out their own mortgage on the building.
The financing mix is the model that Rockett and DeRosas want to use at their projects in Utica. Itís also why they believe they will be successful, Rockett said.
"That concept is what we do,î Rockett said. ìItís our forte. Weíre able to come in, create a financing plan, and put those buildings into play that nobody wants to work with because thereís no financing available."
Rockett said the team is currently researching financing possibilities ñ the package while likely be different for each building.
Coming to Utica
The journey to Utica began with 807 Broad St., a sprawling and ragged commercial building. It has more than 200,000 square feet, yet Rockett and DeRosas purchased it for only $60,000 in March 2008 after finding it advertised on the Internet.
The front stores only represent a fraction of the space. Rockett said heíll outfit the rest, admittedly garbage strewn and unfinished, to the needs of tenants. A Halloween event has become an annual happening at the building.
From there, they looked around and found 307 Genesee St., a Victorian mansion that was built in 1863 with an addition in 1912. It had been occupied for 100 years by the Knights of Columbus, but was sold after a 2006 fire damaged the rear portion of the building.
The sale price: $5,000.
When talking about the building, Rockettís tone takes on a reverent quality. Work done over the years, including commercial glass doors and the sale of the original fireplace, angers him. He wants to lease the building, possibly to Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, but says heíll never sell it.
The team also purchased the former Photofair building on Columbia Street. The plans are for four retail stores at ground level and 24 apartments in the upper floors, a roughly $3 million project for which Rockett and DeRosas are currently weighing their financing options.
Theyíre also working with local attorney Michael Cancilla on the former CharlesTown site on the Utica/Frankfort border.
City officials are enthusiastic on the focus of saving old buildings.
ìWhat I would hope is out-of-towners coming in with their different vision of urban development inspire people to say, ëHey, what do these guys see that we donít?î said Robert Sullivan, the cityís community revitalization director. ìAnd if theyíre investing, then why donít we?î
The developers are receiving federal Community Development Block Grant funds to improve the facades of the buildings, mayoral assistant Angelo Roefaro said Saturday night. He did not have available to him the dollar amounts of those grants, which are being directed to the developers through the city.
Challenges exist Just like the Blakely Building in Lawrence, each building has its own set of challenges. Rockett said heís struggling to attract tenants against the industrial stigma of Broad Street and the poor condition in which the building was left.
At the Knights of Columbus building, copper wiring was stripped out of the boiler room and the gymnasium, which turned the gas off and stopped the sump pump from working. As a result, the building sustained roughly $150,000 in water damage, Rockett said.
On Columbia Street, a new roof was recently required for the building simply to seal it from the weather.
It all seems like enough to send someone back to Massachusetts, but the exact opposite is the case.
" All over the place you have these abandoned buildings,î Rockett said. ìI drive around and Iím drooling."
More details
Rockett and DeRosas have undertaken the following projects. Each building is owned under a different limited liability company controlled by the partners:
307 Genesee St., the former Knights of Columbus building
-- The sale: Purchased for $5,000 from the Knights of Columbus in June 2009.
-- The project: Rockett and DeRosas purchased the historic building after a 2006 fire damaged the rear gymnasium. Work is currently being done to weatherize and repair the building, with an eye on future projects. Rockett said there are a number of possibilities, among them making it a student activity center for the nearby Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute.
807 Broad St.
-- Purchased for $60,000 in March 2008 from IB Property Holdings.
-- The project: The roughly 200,000 square foot warehouse is admittedly in rough shape in many spots, though a series of businesses have launched out front, including a performing arts center with a cafÈ.
326-334 Columbia St., the former Photofair building
-- Purchased for $10,000 in October 2009 from A-1 Construction. An adjacent, smaller building at 336 Columbia St. was included in the purchase.
-- The project: Rockett and Derosas have had to fix the roof on the smaller building, and plan to put four retail shops at street level with as many as 26 apartments on the upper floors.
Copyright 2010 The Observer-Dispatch, Utica, New York. Some rights reserved
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Comments (26) first amendments dad 11 months ago Report Abuse
run dont walk out of utica while u can,u have been warned partner... hmmmm 11 months ago Report Abuse
If Sullivan is involved, these fellas bettter get outta Dodge while they still can. Just as the person who bought the Catholic Womens Club. positivethinker 11 months ago Report Abuse
that's horrible. Give them a chance for crying out loud! I'm glad they have a positive outlook. The city looks like a DMZ. I mean really, could it get any worse? Give them a chance. I wish them all the best! Garbageman 11 months ago Report Abuse
This is Utica, we have heard all these grand plans and fanciful stories of grand plans before. More than a few developers have come here and stuck the taxpayer. Ultimately, I expect that we be be wondering what has happened to them when the public money runs dry. EThurmann 11 months ago Report Abuse
positivethinker, welcome to the whining peanut gallery. There's always a complaint, no matter what. You want to know what keeps this area back? It's folks like these with a 'can't do' attitude. They hate it here for whatever reason yet they don't have the gumption to either pitch in and help fix things or just plain leave. Worthless do-nothing chatterboxes flapping their gums. WW5 11 months ago Report Abuse
Yet the team plans to breathe new life into each building, using their own resources and a dollop of federal money for faade improvements. key words 'federal money'. get free money, fix up the exterior a little, then bail with the remaining funds and declare the project insolvent. newsie 11 months ago Report Abuse
They are making it happen. It will take outsiders to do this. All any born and raised here can do is be part of the b&*ch and moan club. A new era is soon coming between these guys and the Cornell 'Rust to Green' project. If you think people should pull up stakes and leave folks, why don't you lead the way and move aside so that someone with a vision can come in and revitalize. Garbageman 11 months ago Report Abuse
According to the Architect involved with these projects very limited work will co tinue until federal, state, or local funds are put into the structures. The funding has currently dried up - which has resulted in no additional work being contemplated. Every idea for these buildings is contingent upon taxpayer funding being provided to the developers. Let us be honest, and yes you will call it whining, but who in their right mind would put money into buildings that were only one swing away from the wrecking ball. No private development takes place in Utica without dump truck loads of taxpayer funding being provided. What is the condition of the rest of 802 Broad St. Even after the bottle return business opened several years ago, the windows above were unboarded on 20 below January days. Every pipe in the place must have ruptured. Let me see the finances before I think his is great for the taxpayer. Remember, Hotel Utica ? Just call me skeptical. overtaxed 11 months ago Report Abuse
I'm all for it aslong as it is their money to be invested, not taxpayer monies. Also, if this is such a good investement they should not need any property tax deals. In the end you will see this is pie in the sky ideas wherein a developer gets taxpayer funds to do work that will never succeed and they will gone with money in their pockets. I hvae an idea: Let's take a run down building in the City and let two developers restore the building and make it a Hotel in the hub of Utica. Let's help these developers with taxpayer money and tax breaks and after they restore the buildign all will be perfect. Oh right, that is Hotel Utcia and that has been a huge failure. casey26 11 months ago Report Abuse
Hey OK, wasn't the last developer in Utica the Hollyrock guy from New Jersey that said he saw the same promise in Utica and couldn'r believe that no one found us before. He said thanks for your tax dollars but I'm out of here and left without a trace except his building that is now for sale with taxpayer upgrades. Maybe theses guys haven't heard that not to many people that they will count on for patronage can't afford there rent let alone nights out unless they propose $1 hot dogs. Come to town look for tax dollars, live off the fat pork, and high tail it out of town. I have a Barnes Ave bridge to sell you to which will be home to condo's over the sewage filled Barge Canal, Mohawk River and our new baseball stadium. Ha ha ha lol and cracking up. Jakeman 11 months ago Report Abuse
What the city needs is a giant bulldozer to start work beginning at the Mayor's Culver Ave Funeral home and continue unabated into the city's west side, before heading north to the Harbor Point site. At that point, New York City investors need to get their hands on federal stimulus funds to build a giant dome above the city to supposedly attract a major league baseball team but instead use it to gas any remaining people here. Cool. first amendment 11 months ago Report Abuse
Matt De Mar was actually from Long Island, not New Jersey. He would be the Hollyrock owner as well as other establishments which all turned out to be trouble spots. He was also rehabbing some apartments in Herkimer that also turned into trouble pretty fast. The plans and ideas outlined in this story are fine and great, but do it with private investor money, not tax dollars and government handouts. any one of us could have ideas of grandiousness when someone else's money is funding it. the Hotel Utica is a prime example on how developers with grand ideas rip off the taxpayers in likewise grand fashion. herkimer 11 months ago Report Abuse
Just wait and see. What will happen is they will get government money, local government funds perhaps in the forms of property tax deals for a few years, and they will make it happen with blood sweat and tears while investing some of their own money as well. Then they will turn around and sell the buildings for a profit. And we will all sit here with out mouths open and say 'they did this with taxpayer money, and then they have the audacity to turn around and make money off of us'. We will never be happy, because it's not us making the money. All these posters are just (losers?) eastutican 11 months ago Report Abuse
yup. guess if EThurmann says its so, well, who are naysayers and critics to complain? after all, it is the naysayers who were responsible for the Woolworth's rehab, the Hotel Utica fiasco, the open sewer that the Barge Canal has become, dumping money into a 'harbor' of a landlocked city-becoming-a-town where there is no water traffic, a $350,000 Master Plan with a stadium on a toxic waste dump and a trolley, and blah, blah, blah. hey, EThurmann, do you have any freaking idea how much federal, state and local tax money has been thrown into the black hole that we call Utica ? I suggest that you open your checkbook and underwrite some of this just wonderful stuff. those who havent left yet are planning their exit. apparently you have not heard of all the businesses that have left over the last fifty years ... you live in the rustbelt, pal. the growth industries have been correctional facilities and nursing homes. are you just joshing or are you brain dead ?? if your idea of fixing responsibility is to ignore the career ladder politicians and the tax eaters and play the blame game with homeowning taxpayers who are angry, why do you even bother ?? solong-sucka 11 months ago Report Abuse
As P.T. Barnum once said, 'There's a sucker born every minute'. overtaxed 10 months ago Report Abuse
Go look at the Mass. projects they did. They are masters at getting a little money here and a little money there under the guise of private investment. In the end the only private money will be the construction and possible rental INCOME they will put in their pockets. The taxpayer will be provideing the funding and the tax breaks and return get nothing more than higher taxes. If it cannot be done with ALL private money then it is not worth doing. Saturn Rising 10 months ago Report Abuse
307 Genesee Street? That's where they've been keeping a large Rottweiller alone in the building 24/7 and then coming by occasionally to let it walk up and down Genesee Street off-leash. Just ask the police, they have a report on it. first amendment 10 months ago Report Abuse
''We will never be happy, because it's not us making the money. All these posters are just (losers?)'' When a company, organization or entreprenuer is profitable on their own, kudos to them. But when such profit comes via tax breaks (PILOT's and other tax deals) and/or government subsidies, that's not a profit but rather corporate welfare. Its taking money from the pockets of the taxpayers and putting into the pockets of a company. It is no different than taking money out of the pockets of taxpayers and giving it to the poor who are on public assistance. no different. Its a phenonmenon called ''redistributing the wealth''. but unlike how most people see that phrase as taking the wealth from the few and sharing with the rest, this is the opposite where it is taking from everybody else just to benefit very few. perhaps to the one who thinks the other posters are just losers, maybe they are fine with subsidizing somebody else's wealth. CNY Guy 10 months ago Report Abuse
Simplisticly - I thought the public tax dollars were for the public good - infrastructure, court systems, social services, etc. Over and over I have seen grand schemes with financing benifits from public tax dollars, and so often they fail. It is akin to government/bank programs allowing folk to buy a house with next to none of their own investment and 3 years later..... Yup, it's in foreclosure and they walk. first amendment 10 months ago Report Abuse
public tax dollars are supposed to be in support of public efforts and the public good. How are any of these projects to the betterment or benefit of the public or society at large? None of these buildings will be for the use of the general public, therefore they are private developments and likewise should be funded with private money. healthywannabe 10 months ago Report Abuse
IS the money actually flowing from the City for this/these projects???? Bob Sullivan, himself, EVER return phone calls????? Do they ever pay these guys as promised????? What about the suppliers and subcontractors are THEY paid as promised???? UTNY 10 months ago Report Abuse
the nice thing is that most of this development is by a mix of backgrounds.....out of state, out of town, downstate developers, people who have moved back, and people who have relocated here....all taking interest in helping move the city forward. the grass always seems greener on the other side but as you can see from these outsiders, Utica and upstate new york really aren't all that bad. it's the outside perspective that many current utican's do not have...you're your own worst enemies! UTNY 10 months ago Report Abuse
its amazing that we tear down our old industrial buildings when down south even as close as DC developers are constructing mixed-use buildings; condos, retail, etc. that mirror the look of mills, etc. first amendment 10 months ago Report Abuse
tear down what industrial buildings? Broad street is full of them. Guess you don't get out much. 901 Broad street has many businesses in there including Zogby International, Telecove phone company, among others, and the Oneida County Board of Elections also rents space in the building. Then a block or two down, Casa Imports has a large building. Closer to the train station Coblestone construction has one of the old buildings renovated. first amendment 10 months ago Report Abuse
a whole bunch of businesses in that former GE building. I know there is also a sewing place either on one of the floors in 901 or in the 1001 end of the building first amendment 10 months ago Report Abuse
We're not opposed to a new hospital, just do not bulldoze Downtown Utica's Historic Columbia-Lafayette Neighborhood... "Build It At St. Luke's!"