Category Archives: Commercial / Residential Real Estate

By Paul Post

Area real estate professionals say the fourth quarter heading into 2024 continues to be a strong seller’s market as demand far outpaces inventory for prospective homebuyers.

“It seems that there’s been a decline in homes coming on the market during the past year because many people who are at lower interest rates are holding back, they don’t want to have to buy a house at a higher rate,” said Janet Besheer, of Equitas Realty in Saratoga Springs. “They’re just backing off. So there are fewer sales. We have a lot of disappointed people.”

Pending sales throughout the Capital Region declined 9 percent this summer while closed sales dropped more than 26 percent and total inventory was down 28 percent.

Mortgage rates are currently over 7 percent, more than double the 3 percent level of a few years ago.

“That’s causing a certain portion of the market to step back and say, ‘I’m not going to buy now, we’re going to stay put’,” Besheer said. “Others say, ‘We’ll wait till interest rates come down.’ Well that might be a long wait.”

Meanwhile, prices continue to escalate.

“It’s hard for empty nesters to retire, sell and buy in this market,” said Melissa Cartier, of Saratoga Springs-based Cartier Real Estate Group LLC. “They’re getting a lot for their property, sure, but to purchase at such a higher price point? I don’t know.”

“It’s a really tough time for buyers,” she said. “It’s not fun for them. Lots of people have been looking six months, a year. One buyer I know moved out and rented for a full year before finding a house.”

Some people are so anxious to buy that they’re waiving inspections, which she strongly discourages. “We like to see people be confident in what they’re buying,” Cartier said. “We try to have our buyers be more completive in other areas, like giving the seller more time to move out, not just throwing caution to the wind.”

By Christine Graf

Signature ONE Realty Group recently celebrated grand opening of its new offices  at 2460 Route 9 in Malta. 

Prior to relocating, their office was just a short distance away at 2575 Route 9. 

“We leased that space for almost four years, and we outgrew it,” said owner Cindy Quade, a licensed real estate broker with more than 35 years of experience. “We also wanted to have our own space.”

Quade started her real estate career in new construction and branched out into resale after years of referring business to other brokers.

“We had a huge demand from a lot of past clients to do resale,” she said. “We had been referring out a lot of that business for a lot of years.”

When rebranding the business in 2018, its name was changed from Signature Homes Realty to Signature ONE Realty Group. The firm has grown to include 12 agents, and to date, sales have totaled close to $1 billion, according to Quade.

By Paul Post

Alan Schnurman epitomizes the American Dream. Raised by his single mom, a seamstress, in Brooklyn, he slept on the couch of an affordable housing unit with no room of his own.

Fast forward a few decades, he and business partner, Gary Seff, recently bought up more than $15 million worth of commercial properties in Saratoga County.

“I was passing through Saratoga Springs a while back and didn’t see any vacant stores,” said Schnurman, 77, a retired lawyer and Dutchess County resident. “I saw a very vibrant community. I did a little research and found out about GlobalFoundries and how jobs were coming into the county. I was looking for a place to diversify and decided this was it.”

His first local acquisition, on his own, was Red Roof Inn on Old Route 146 in Clifton Park. Next, he and Seff, owner of Fountainhead Construction Co. on Eastern Long Island, purchased the Bank of America property at the corner of Route 146 and Clifton Country Road in Clifton Park.

Recently, they paid $1.67 million cash for the historic 472 Broadway building in Saratoga Springs, which was the long-time home of Menges & Curtis Pharmacy and deJonghe Original Jewelry. On the same day, they bought a 17,800-square-foot retail plaza at 4 Kelch Drive, off Northway Exit 12 in Malta, whose tenants include Five Guys, Jersey Mike’s, Starbucks, ATT, a beauty parlor and pizza shop.

Plans call for renovating the currently vacant upper floors of the downtown Saratoga Springs building, at the corner of Lake Avenue, into upscale apartments.

By Susan Elise Campbell 

Signature ONE Realty Group is within weeks of moving into its new space at 2460 Route 9 in Malta, according to owner Cindy Quade. 

This is the first time in Quade’s 35-year real estate career that she is taking on a total commercial renovation. It is also the first time Quade and her agents will conduct business from a place she owns, rather than rents, she said.

“When our lease came up for renewal this spring, I gave our agents the choice of staying on or working remotely,” said Quade. “It was unanimous.  They would work out of their homes and meet on Zoom and at restaurants.”

Quade purchased the turn-of-the-century building in 2018 with thoughts of remodeling and occupying in one or two years. Originally a schoolhouse that was “added to and propped up over the years,” the structure was rich in history and nostalgia, she said. 

“I had several contractors looking at the building and found it would not be feasible to do a remodel,” she said. “Even if I did remodel, there would still be some issues with the structure. We needed to tear it down.”

Quade said she was “working out the design and my vision when COVID came. I had watched Franco Construction Services build Little Achievers Child Care nearby on Route 9. They kept that project moving even when it was difficult to get labor and materials.”

Quade hired the Ballston-based firm.

By Steven Luttman

Former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil made famous the phrase “All politics is local”. The meaning being that while problems exist on a national level, at the end of the day voters care most about issues close to home. 

I would make the argument that real estate, much like politics, is predominantly a local matter. Do country-wide trends matter? Certainly yes. Monitoring data like the monthly Case-Shiller Home Price Index will provide good insight into the overall health of housing. 

Does it accurately reflect what’s currently happening in your neighborhood? Oftentimes not at all. Predicting the future of local housing markets can be more art than science. If you don’t believe me, ask Zillow. 

The real estate platform lost hundreds of millions of dollars last year due to its iBuyer algorithm overpricing offers made to sellers. As of the writing of this article, publicly traded shares of Zillow Group (ZG) were down 52 percent year to date, vastly underperforming the S&P 500 (SPY) as a whole by roughly half over the same period. Computers are great, but boots on the ground still count for something.

What we do know is that taking a long-term viewpoint, the Capital Region housing market is on sound footing. Our two largest employers (healthcare and local / state government) represent sectors unlikely to see a contraction in staffing, regardless of external economic events. While negative net migration in the state is concerning, this is overwhelmingly a downstate problem. 

By Christine Graf

Unlike the residential real estate market which has boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the commercial real estate market has experienced a significant decline, according to those in the industry.

The demand for commercial space has been impacted by pandemic-related business closures and the changing demographic of the workforce. According to a Gallup poll, 72 percent of white-collar workers were still working remotely in May 2021.

Many companies are expected to  switch to a hybrid model or to allow employees to continue working exclusively from home after the pandemic ends. If this happens, the demand for commercial office space could drop significantly.

The pandemic also led to a dramatic increase in Ecommerce, which was already a threat to brick and mortar retailers who now fear that consumer behaviors that changed during the pandemic may become permanent. A record number of stores closed in the U.S. in 2020 leaving 159 million square feet of retail space vacant.

Despite these concerns, Howard Denison, associate broker at DeMarsh Real Estate in Glens Falls, said the local commercial real estate is rebounding after being “under the weather” for the past year.

He has been working in real estate for 31 years and attributes much of the recovery to the Route 9 sewer project in Moreau. The addition of a municipal sewer system in the town’s commercial corridor is expected to lead to development and economic growth in area where growth had stagnated.

For nearly 40 years Wellspring, the organization that provides crisis and support services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in Saratoga County, has operated from an out-of-sight basement office on Broadway in Saratoga Springs.

Now, after decades of planning and a successful fundraising campaign, Wellspring is moving into a new mission-based facility located just south of Northway Exit 12 at 2816 Route 9 in Malta.

Similar to Wellspring’s current location on Broadway, domestic violence and sexual assault are often hidden from view.

“Because relationship abuse is so private, and understandably so, I don’t think many people realize that there is a deep demand for Wellspring’s services throughout our county. Last year we responded to over 1,300 hotline calls,” said Wellspring Executive Director Maggie Fronk. “Even so, we know that there are many victims who we are still not connecting with. This new building will make Wellspring much more visible, and we hope this means that more people will know that we are here as a resource.”

Wellspring’s new home will expand their ability to serve more clients, she said. Many times victims of relationship abuse are unable to leave because their abuser has prohibited them from having their own source of income. The agency’s new building will have program space for workforce development to enhance clients’ job skills for career growth and financial literacy classes for self-sufficiency.

In addition to new client services, Wellspring’s new location will include ample space for community prevention and education programs.

By Christine Graf
Twelve years ago, Susan Davis completed the design of a two-story mixed-use building at 65 Beekman St. in Saratoga Springs. Davis, a principal architect at SD Atelier Architecture LLC, was hired by the woman who owned the vacant 5,200-square-foot property at the time.
SD Atelier Architecture, in Saratoga Springs, is owned by Davis and her husband, fellow architect Don Davis. During their 25 years of working in Saratoga, they have designed numerous residential and commercial properties both locally and in the Adirondacks. Current projects include Elk Lake Lodge, a historic hunting and fishing lodge in North Hudson, and Schroon Lake Community Church, a historic church that was destroyed by fire in early 2019.

By Jill Nagy
Alltown Fresh on Erie Boulevard in Schenectady is a cross between a farmers’ market and a convenience store housed in a striking gabled building. Its builder, Frank H. Alessandrini, owner of F.H. Alexander Inc., of Schacticoke, was so pleased with the result that they chose it for their September advertising campaign.
“It’s a great looking store,” said Alessandrini, who said the project was the first of its kind in New York state.
The 4,800-square-foot market focuses on creating an elevated, farm stand-like experience by providing a menu of healthy options such as made-to-order all-day breakfast, fresh salads, smoothies, sandwiches, bowls, and more, the company said.
“It was a great job,” said Kevin Doyle, director of the project management office for Global Partners LP, the company that owns Alltown Fresh. “We are very happy and pleased with the work they did for us.”
“You walk in and it’s ‘Wow,’” said Martha Sullivan, a marketing person with Global Partners.