by Bea Peterson
The former WCW building at 1 Mechanic Street, one of two buildings on adjoining properties owned by JW Realty, may soon and finally belong to Rensselaer County.
The WCW company left the Mechanic Street building in the autumn of 2011 after a long battle over the building’s tax assessment. Because of the tax dispute, the building was to be taken over by the County for non-payment of taxes. Public opinion was that the building would soon be put on the market by the County. [private]Unfortunately, that has not been the case. It appears the property has not changed hands because of a boundary line dispute between the County and JW Realty, owners the building behind it. Oak Mitsui leases the other building from JW Realty which is owned in part by John Wilkinson, former owner of WCW.
At one point last January the situation was aggravated when a water pipe near a shutoff valve cracked and filled the warehouse back bay with more than five feet of water.
However, on Tuesday, January 15, Rensselaer County Attorney Stephen Pechenik said he had just heard that the issue may soon be resolved. “Apparently,” said Pechenik, “the former owner is willing to solve the boundary line problem with us.” He is hopeful this will happen. If that is the case, the property will be ready for sale in two or three months. Otherwise, he said, the County will have to take the property by eminent domain.
Pechenik noted that at this time they have no potential buyers for the empty building. However, County Legislator Stan Brownell, who represents Hoosick Falls among other communities in eastern Rensselaer County, said the boundary line has been a deterrent to development of that property. He feels that the County Attorney’s progress on this was too slow. “We showed this property one year ago to Oak Mitsui and the Economic Department never followed up with them, and then a few short months ago Cambridge Valley Machining was looking at expanding to Hoosick Falls and were not keen on the boundary problem. This would have meant lots of good jobs.” he said.
[/private]