LAKE PLACID — A Lake Placid developer, expected to build one of the largest new housing developments in the town of North Elba in some time, is now planning to reduce the number of housing units in his development, further subdivide the lot he purchased for the project and up the number of income-based units there.

What was going to be a sprawling 355-unit complex, the Peaks at Lake Placid on Barn Road, is now down 55 units in total, according to North Elba town Supervisor Derek Doty. Doty believed the developer, Joe Barile, decided to drop the number of units to make it easier to redraw lot lines there.

Barile was not immediately available for comment Thursday.

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Fewer units

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Doty said that with the total drop in units, Barile expects to increase the number of income-based units in the complex. The project was originally approved with the stipulation that 10% of the units had to be rented as “affordable” housing, available only to people who make less than 120% of the Area Median Income — that was around $69,500 for Essex County in 2019. Doty said Barile is now hoping to have around 40 units available to rent at an affordable price. That’s around five more “affordable” units than expected. Code Enforcement Officer Mike Orticelle said he thought Barile opted for a higher number of affordable units to help strengthen his application for a sales tax exemption for the project.

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Financing the Peaks

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Town Councilor Emily Politi said last month that Barile has applied for a sales tax exemption for the Peaks project through the Essex County Industrial Development Agency. She said that if the IDA deems the project eligible for the tax exemption, the town council and Essex County Board of Supervisors would also have to approve the project’s eligibility. Doty said Thursday that he doesn’t expect the IDA board members to review Barile’s case until the end of this month.

Politi said applying for an IDA tax exemption is now “standard practice” for large-scale developments like the Peaks. She said that the former Quality Inn rebuild on Saranac Avenue and the renovation project at the former Hotel North Woods — now Grand Adirondack Hotel — were recently granted tax exemptions through the IDA.

Barile has encountered some hurdles with funding the Peaks. He was denied a loan he initially applied for through Green Bank, a state-sponsored bank aimed at financing green energy projects, which would have fully funded the project. He ended up getting partial funding through Evans Bank in Buffalo and the local Champlain National Bank, which caused Barile to lay the project out in “phases” as he anticipated additional funding.

The first phase of 101 units was expected to be finished by the 2023 FISU games next January and host around 620 athletes, but Barile told Adirondack North Country Sports Council Executive Director Ashley Walden earlier this year that he couldn’t guarantee that any of the units would be done by the games.

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More lots

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Orticelle said Barile’s lot is currently divided into three lots, and Barile wants to create four lots. Orticelle thought Barile’s motivation to parcel out the Peaks lot was to more easily get financing for the project’s phases.

Orticelle said the lot changes would need to be reapproved by the Lake Placid-North Elba Review Board, though he said it wouldn’t be a “full blown” review process. He didn’t believe the board would reject the change. He said Barile hasn’t taken any action to get the new parcels approved.

Orticelle added that the drop in units likely wouldn’t need to be approved by the review board.

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Permitted progress

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Construction crews cleared the Peaks lot last fall and started installing some underground infrastructure. Before the crews stopped work for the winter, they constructed some drainage and sewer lines.

Orticelle said Thursday that the Building and Planning Department had new permits ready for Barile to pick up, which will allow crews to lay the foundations for five of the project’s buildings.

Doty said Barile wants to get started on the foundations “almost right away” when the snow melts, though right now, the timeline for construction at the Peaks is up in the air.