Mark Levack cites several recent large transactions as evidence that the commercial market in the Glens Falls region is picking up.
By Jill Nagy
It’s not exactly a boom but Glens Falls realtor Mark Levack sees the commercial real estate market “trending positive.”
He recently sold properties languishing on the market for years and he has potential tenants competing for storefronts in downtown Glens Falls. Banks are lending again and new businesses are creating new jobs.
In Queensbury, a large equipment dealer on Big Boom Road renewed its lease and this time the lease includes an option to buy the property. This was despite the fact that snow plows are a big part of the tenant’s business and there was little demand for snowplows during last year’s almost snowless winter.
A 45-lot subdivision plot in South Glens Falls — “one of the last remaining undeveloped parcels in the village,” he said — is under contract and Levack expects that sale to close by the end of the year.
After some three years on the market, a 24-unit apartment complex in Warrensburg just sold. Similarly, a restaurant building on Route 9 in Queensbury that had been vacant for two years will soon reopen as a smoke shop.
Levack said he was “fielding two proposals on a downtown Glens Falls storefront,” when a call came in on another line: another inquiry about that same property.
A group of oral maxillofacial surgeons recently opened a new office in Glens Falls and hired 15 people to staff the expanded practice.
Apparently, the better times are not confined to the North Country. Levack talks with colleagues in Saratoga and “they have informed me that things are busy. The pulse is definitely quickening.”
Although there are still bargains to be had, Levack sees most sellers getting their asking price or close to it when they sell.
“We sell real estate even in a down market,” he said, “Sellers may not get their price but we make sales.” However, in recent months, there have been more activity, more sales, more interest, and more sellers getting their price, he said.
Helping to fuel the uptick is the greater availability of credit.
“People want to blame the banks for a lot of the problems in the economy right now but I don’t think that is justified,” he said. For a buyer who has money for a down payment and sufficient income, he finds, “banks are very aggressive and want to lend.”
He sees a “very aggressive and very competitive market ” and “amazingly low commercial interest rates.” He said people re able to borrow at less that 4 percent interest. On the whole, he finds, the banks’ business has also picked up.
Levack, “a born and bred Glens Falls native,” has been selling real estate since 1985. He, his younger brother, Page, and a partner from Albany, opened Levack Real Estate in Glens Falls in 1988. The company now has four brokers and some part time support staff.
“Our goal is to hire two new brokers in the near term,” he said. He recently helped one of them re-activate his real estate license.
The trend is “absolutely up,” he said, whether one looks at the number of transactions or the number of dollars changing hands.
Levack Real Estate is located at 33 Park St. in Glens Falls. The telephone number is 793-7600.