Members of the village development board, village staff and construction workers on the Saranac Lofts apartment complex check out the ongoing work on Monday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Saranac Lake village staff and development board members got a tour of the 70-unit Saranac Lofts apartment complex going up between Broadway and the Adirondack Rail Trail on Monday.

Project Manager Rob Madia, who works for developers Kearney Group, showed board members around the framed shell of the building. As they walked, banging sounds of construction resounded inside the four-story building, which will hold 63 of the affordable apartments.

As village staff asked questions, Madia pointed out where elevator shafts, kitchens, entrances and common areas will be. Right now, there is just wood framing, windows and structural supports.

“It’ll look a lot different,” Madia said.

Currently, he said there are 20 to 30 people a day working on electrical, ventilation and plumbing — all the internal utilities which will be covered up — as well as bricklayers creating the external facade and others digging and creating stormwater dispersal systems.

Madia said they’ll work outdoors as long as the weather allows them. When winter comes, they’ll continue working inside.

He estimated they have around 6 to 8 months of work left for this building. When it is close to opening, Kearney Group will begin taking applications for apartments.

Already, Madia said the office gets a lot of phone calls. Once the building goes up, people start calling, he said. Village Community Development Director Katrina Glynn said the village gets a lot of calls about apartments there, too.

Development Board Member Bill Domenico said, to him, management is as important to the project as the building itself is. He wanted to make sure the apartments will be managed well, and with consistent owners.

“They keep them forever,” Madia said of the Kearney family. “(They’re heavily involved with) making sure that the building’s run well. They want to make sure they get a good name.”

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The site and brownfield cleanup

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The 1.11-acre site at 120 Broadway has two lots and is the former location of Adirondack Tire.

The Loft, which was toured on Monday, is designed to include 46 one-bedroom units and 17 two-bedroom units.

The Carry will be a three-story building with seven apartments and plans for commercial offices for start-up businesses, artists and co-working spaces. This construction has not started yet.

The start of work for both buildings was delayed last year by the discovery of contaminated soil and the state designating the site as a brownfield site. In this case, the problem was former underground gasoline storage from a former filling station, automotive repair shop and woodworking factory.

The site of The Loft has been cleaned up and approved by the state.

The Carry — at the former street-side Adirondack Tire site — is in the middle of remediation right now, Madia said. It’s moving forward and The Carry is a much smaller building, so he hopes they might be able to “catch up.”

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Artists and affordability

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Thirty-five units — half of the total — are set be designated for artists who meet eligibility requirements to live in.

The project has been commonly referred to as “artist apartments,” but the developers’ definition of an artist is pretty broad.

Artists get preference, Kearney Group Vice President Sean Kearney said, but the units are not set aside for them. So if they don’t fill all those 35 units with artists, it’s not like they’re going to leave them empty, he said.

One member of the household — a child, a student, a partner or a single person — needs to be certified as an artist. Art does not need to be a full-time job for them, or even a source of income. They do have to show evidence of a body of work and an “ongoing pursuit” of the arts.

A portion of the apartments are set be rented to people earning 60% or less of Franklin County’s median income — currently $60,270 per household, annually, in 2022 dollars, according to the U.S. Census data. A household making $36,162 or less would be eligible for this.

Others are to be rented to people earning between 80% and 130% of the median income. These eligible rates max out at $48,216 and $78,351, respectively.

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Funding

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The project relies heavily on funding and tax breaks from state and local governments in order to offer the housing at affordable rates.

The lion’s share of the funding comes from the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal in the form of tax credits. These tax credits are sold to investors — in this case, investment bankers Raymond James and Webster Bank.

In 2022, the Harrietstown board approved a 30-year Payment In Lieu Of Taxes agreement with the developers.

Under this PILOT, Kearney Group will pay the town a base of $70,000 for 30 years, with a 2% increase every year, instead of paying full taxes on the property.

With the 2% annual increase, in the second year, Kearney Group will pay $71,400 — an additional $1,400 from the base. In the third year it will pay $72,828 — an additional $1,428 from the year prior. This would continue for nearly three decades.

The project got $6.5 million in 2022 from the state for affordable housing development.

The project has also been awarded $400,000 through the village’s $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant to outfit The Carry with a co-working space for entrepreneurs.

The full project has been awarded a $100,000 grant through the village’s Energize Downtown Fund, which was set up by the village’s DRI.

The developers are also eligible for tax credits to offset the costs of the brownfield cleanup.