Category Archives: Commercial / Residential Real Estate

By Paul Post

Craig Darby knows all about ups and downs.

He went back and forth between the minors and NHL for six years before landing a full-time job skating for the Montreal Canadiens.

“There’s negative and positive things that go on during hockey,” said Darby, a retired 15-year pro. “You get called up, you’re encouraged then a week or two later you’re sent down. It’s all about tomorrow’s a new day. You’ve got to be as positive as you can about the next day because good things can happen.”

This outlook has served the 52-year-old Darby well in his second career as an experienced real estate broker for CBRE Upstate, a division of Dallas-based CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm with clients in more than 100 countries.

Business cycles are sometimes more volatile than hard-nosed hockey players battling it out in a Game 7 playoff contest.

But Darby believes demand for Glens Falls-area office space is definitely on the upswing, another key aspect of the city’s economic revitalization that’s transformed downtown in recent years.

During the COVID pandemic, many companies sent their employees home to work remotely. Tribune Media, for example, vacated its large modern building on Media Drive, a short distance from Exit 18 in Queensbury.

By Christine Graf

Queensbury’s Charlie’s Office Furniture has been serving the Capital Region and North Country for more than three decades. 

“My father started the business in 1988, and my mom came on board shortly after that,” said Charles McNeil, Jr. who joined the company in 1998, working alongside his parents, Charles, Sr., and Alyce. The family-owned company also has one long-time employee who works in the warehouse and assists with deliveries. 

“We offer both new and used office furniture,” said McNeil. “That includes all of the furniture for corporate offices—everything to panel systems to case goods, things like desks and filing and storage furniture. Of course, we also have a lot of seating.”  

Charlie’s Office Furniture also sells specialized furniture for health care environments. Product lines include furniture that is used in waiting rooms and lobbies as well as hospital sleep chairs and medical recliners. 

“We also have furniture for education, wellness, and hospitality,” said McNeil. “We’ve done wellness rooms for schools. We also did the SUNY Adirondack food court which was more on the hospitality side.”

By Susan Elise Campbell

The buying and selling of commercial buildings and properties in the North Country took a toll during the Covid pandemic, but two local real estate professionals describe the current outlook as “bullish” and “optimistic.” Respectively, these are Bob Sears of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services and Mark Levack of Levack Real Estate, LLC, each having more than the 35 years in brokering commercial real estate in and around Glens Falls and Queensbury.

“There is money in the system for people who have a history of developing properties,” said Sears. “The increase in interest rates put a little damper on things, but in general, the banks are willing to lend for projects that are worthwhile.”

Commercial projects are “anything beyond a four-family unit” and include apartments, office spaces, retail stores, medical buildings, malls, mobile home parks, commercially zoned lots, investment income real estate, and more, said Levack. At any given time, there is more activity or growth in some categories than others in this cyclical market, he said.

Trending are mixed use developments with both retail office space and three or four stories of apartments to occupy, Sears said. 

By Paul Post

Simons Heating & Cooling Inc. in Glens Falls, which serves customers from Ticonderoga to Albany,  recently moved into new headquarters with over three times more space to accommodate its rapidly growing business.

“We have 11,000 square feet compared to 3,000 at our old location,” said founder and co-owner Dave Simons. “Everything is under one roof now from sales staff to warehousing and we own this building, whereas we were renting before.”

The 28-employee firm recently moved from 47 Main St., Queensbury, to the former Glens Falls K9 building at the corner of Warren Street and Oakland Avenue in Glens Falls.

“It was real important to us to have great visibility from the road at a four-way intersection where people stop and see us,” said Jason McCormack, co-owner and director of operations. “Most HVAC companies don’t have walk-in traffic where people can go into a showroom and discuss with a salesperson about what’s new on the market and what’s trending, or just simply come in and schedule a service appointment.”

“We want to attract people to come to our building, not just be another warehouse they drive by,” he said. “We’ll have signage out front with special offers so people can notice it and come in.”

By Christine Graf

 It was while working full-time as a financial service representative at a local bank that Sacha Lewis took a part-time weekend job at Hogwash Cleaning Solutions, a company she now owns. The Whitehall-based business, one that specializes in residential and commercial exterior cleaning, was established by Lewis’ husband, Andrew Lewis, in 2009.

Lewis enjoyed working at Hogwash so much that she purchased the company from Andrew in 2015. Andrew has remained with the company as an employee, and the couple married in 2021.

“After I took over, I revamped everything. We are now better than we ever were, and we became an LLC in 2018,” said Lewis.

Hogwash had approximately 500 regular customers when she took ownership of the business. Since that time, Lewis said they have expanded their client list to include 4,000 individuals and businesses.

By Paul Post

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

Tim Combs, of HUNT Real Estate in Glens Falls, said, “Everybody is getting more money for their houses. People looking to sell are getting a lot more money if everything is maintained. If you want to get full value for your house, a lot of people are doing little projects before they sell to make them more attractive.”

“Smart buyers can find housing quicker in this market by using tools like getting pre-qualified, which means you’re ready to make a deal,” Combs said. “A lot of buyers go out there and just start looking at houses and they don’t even know how much they can purchase. Once they look at a house and fall in love with it, they have to wait until their financing is approved.”

“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.”

The good news for sellers is that prices remain high.

“$500,000 is the new 300,000,” she said. “Homes in general are selling at 3.3 percent over list price. That’s huge. The actual median sale price in the Capital Region has climbed to more than $300,000. We’ve always been in the low- to mid-$200,000s. So it’s going up. There’s been a real up-tick in home prices in Saratoga County and Warren County around the lakes.”

By Susan Elise Campbell

Foothills Builders will begin construction of a 24-unit apartment complex with retail space near Northway Exit 18 in Queensbury this fall .

“We are finishing up our construction drawings now and hope to frame up the building before winter,” said Joe Leuci, who has operated the company with his father, Joe Leuci Sr., for the past 10 years. “This project at 80 Main St. is a new challenge for us.”

The Leucis purchased the land in December 2021 with the intention of developing it for mixed use, he said. 

Foothills Builders is primarily a residential construction company and has built 100 homes in the area and has developed and managed some smaller commercial projects. 

“The corridor is being developed for that type of construction because it connects the highway with downtown Queensbury,” said Leuci.

He said properties must be developed for mixed use if they are within a certain distance from Main Street.

“The commercial space follows Main Street zoning regulations,” said Leuci. “We will be able to subdivide to do more local shops to suit the tenants. Based on preliminary discussions with potential businesses, the space will fill up quickly,” he added. 

By R.J. DeLuke

The Glens Falls Planning Board approved the architectural site plan for the $30 million overhaul of South Street.

The board’s action took place Oct. 4.

The plan being carried out by SpringCity Development Group, a subsidiary of Bonacio Construction in Saratoga Springs, calls for  renovating three vacant buildings while adding a five-story apartment complex.

It is all part of a major, long-envisioned rehabilitation of that part of downtown. The city received a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant from the state in 2016 to push the project along.

Larry Novik, business development director for Bonacio Construction and SpringCity, said the first phase will take about 12 months. The company is working with Glens Falls Farmers’ Market Association to make sure market vendors are not disturbed in either the summer of 2023 or 2024 by the construction.

Approximately 90 apartments will be built, something economic development officials fee is vital to the area. Also, nearly 14,000 square feet of commercial space at the corner of South and Elm streets will be built.

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.