MEDINA: Village won't go for $2.5M grant

By Miranda Vagg/vaggm@gnnewspaper.com
The Journal-Register

September 26, 2007 01:29 pm

— Applications for the Restore New York grant program are due in Albany by the close of business Friday.
But after planning to apply for $2.5 million to restore the former Ames plaza on Maple Ridge Road, the Village of Medina will not be sending in an application. Benderson Realty, which would have paid 10 percent in matching funds, reportedly “backed out” after letters of intent were sent to the state.
“We submitted a letter of intent for the amount of $2.5 million, and they would have had to pay $250,000,” Mayor Clayton Ehrenreich said. “I have received no reason why they wanted to withdraw.”
Ehrenreich announced Benderson’s decision to not go through with the program Tuesday evening during a public hearing that was scheduled for public comment on the village’s Restore New York application. The purpose of the funding is to help with the restoration of abandoned buildings and buildings in disrepair.
“We had a conference call with them and the (Economic Development Agency) and everything was fine,” Ehrenreich said. “The next day, I got a call from the EDA saying, ‘We’ve got some bad news.’”
Since the deadline for letters of intent had passed, the village was not allowed to submit another one, rendering them ineligible for the funding during this round of grant awards, he said.
Trustee Timothy Cooper asked if Stuart Brown, the village’s grant writer, had charged the village for his services. Ehrenreich said he had not because “the application never went through.”
When asked by one resident during the hearing if there was any way to receive money from Benderson Realty for village expenses during the letter and application phases, Ehrenreich said there had been no money spent by the village during that process.
“We expended no money,” he said. “Everything so far that had been done was through the EDA.”
Ehrenreich said the property Benderson Realty owns on Maple Ridge Road is in the Empire Zone, which would make any potential business or industry that makes use of the space eligible for certain incentives such as tax breaks.
“We have next year still,” he said.
Contact reporter Miranda Vagg at 798-1400, ext. 2225.