SARANAC LAKE – The village of Saranac Lake has agreed to lease its downtown 1-3 Main St. building to the Adirondack Park Agency for 43 years as the state agency in charge of regulating land use and development in the Adirondack Park seeks to relocate its headquarters from Ray Brook to the village.

This is a major step in the years-long plan for the APA to spend $40 million to renovate the historic Paul Smith’s Power and Light Company building at the intersection of Main Street, Lake Street and Kiwassa Road, as well as construct a new three-story building in the back of the public parking lot there.

The project has been controversial since it was proposed three years ago, but it’s also been popular among many types of local leaders.

The village board voted 3-1 on March 9 to have the village manager sign the lease.

The lease starts on April 1 and lasts until March 31, 2069. It includes the option for two potential eight-year extensions. The APA will pay the village $1 per year to rent the 2.3-acre property.

Although Trustee Aurora White supports the project, she voted against approving the lease last week because she wanted the village to take more time to negotiate the terms of the lease.

Mayor Jimmy Williams and trustees Sean Ryan and Matt Scollin voted to approve the lease, saying they feel comfortable with it and want to allow the APA to move on to the next step.

Trustee Kelly Brunette, who won election to become mayor on Wednesday, abstained from the vote. She also said she supports the project, but is “torn” about the lease. She loves the concept, but is not sure all the details are beneficial to the village as they stand now.

The village attorney negotiated the lease with the APA for five weeks, Williams said. White said the board was not involved in the negotiations, though.

Matt Robinson-Loffler – assistant counsel for the APA, who helped draft the lease – said they can still negotiate some terms after the lease is signed.

APA Spokesman Keith McKeever clarified that this lease is not the “final approval” of the project. The entire project will still need to go through village approval processes and the APA’s own process.

He said they need the lease to be able to move forward with the design phase of the project. With the lease secured now, he said they can go out to bid. The plan is to have the design finished by late summer.

Brunette said the loss of weekday public parking in the 70-space lot is a huge concern for her.

Ryan said the move is “a no-brainer.” He said there’s no better place for the APA headquarters than the “Capital of the Adirondacks,” a nickname for Saranac Lake.

He did feel that the parking issue should have been worked on several years ago, but said he plans to present something at the board’s upcoming meeting on Monday to start that conversation.

White said some of her concerns about the lease have been addressed, but she had more – mostly about financial liability falling on the village for a variety of reasons. She wants to avoid the risk of the village ending up paying for the improvements to the building.

Several residents asked the board to table the vote on the lease to try to get more out of the agreement for the village, and for the village to have more of a say in aspects like parking and appearance.

“APA wants to resume motion,” Robinson-Loffler said.

He said further delay wouldn’t necessarily kill the project, but it would hurt.

McKeever said delays cost money, and the APA has a set budget for this project.

Supporters of the lease said that the project will restore a historic building, be an economic driver putting “feet on the street” with the APA’s 60-or-so employees working close to downtown businesses and be one of the biggest – if not the biggest – state capital improvements in the village’s history.

Some also said this would make the APA more visible and accessible to the public. The APA has had a fraught relationship with local communities since its inception in 1971, which has been aggressive and violent at times in the past. Supporters said a downtown location could humanise its employees.

Others said it could increase collaboration between the local government and the state agency.

The project

Between the three-story Power and Light building and a one-story brick powerhouse behind it, there is approximately 10,500 square feet.

The new 18,000 square foot building at the bend in the parking lot is expected to be built back into the hillside to be outside village zoning setbacks and avoid the need for a village variance.

and the former site of the police station — and on the Lake Street and Petrova Avenue hillside for a total campus of 28,000 square feet of office space.

The state has allocated $40 million for the project, up from the original $30 million allocated in 2022.

The total is broken down into $4 million for site development, $6 million to renovate the historic buildings, $20 million to construct the new building and $10 million in soft costs for designs and unexpected expenses.

There had been plans to see if the village could get grants to install a geothermal well to heat and cool the building, but McKeever said the process of seeing if this was feasible was taking too long, and the agency needed to continue.

A trove of documents about the project can be found at tinyurl.com/34ywbj36.

Two years ago, the village moved its police department from the building to a state-owned former Army National Guard armory on state Route 3 to make room for the APA. The village is currently planning a combined public safety building for the police, fire and emergency departments.

Support and opposition

Steve Erman, a former APA economic advisor, asked the village to table the vote and get the public more involved.

“Why the rush?” he asked.

He said he does not trust the state in cases like this and he felt the public has been “closed out” of this process. Not enough information has been disclosed, he said, the 130-page lease was only first shared with the public three days before the meeting and the APA had promised a public question-and-answer session, which has not happened, he said.

McKeever said the public session was delayed because of all the work they were doing, trying to see if geothermal would work at the site. He said the agency now plans to hold a public session, potentially in April.

Village Downtown Advisory Board Chair Jerry Michael said the APA’s desire to move here is a “gift.”

The APA currently has 59 employees. The preliminary designs plan to build space for up to 65. These employees will shop and eat here, Michael said.

As people gather, he said, it works like gravity — more people attract more people.

“People are attracted to where other people are,” Michael said. “That brings more people to your streets.”

Rich Shapiro said this project started when he was on the village board. He has felt that the building has been a weight on the village and costly to taxpayers to maintain it. He had wanted to sell it for a dollar. He felt the lease was good for the taxpayer because the APA would be in charge of covering maintenance.

But he warned that the more a project gets delayed, the more likely it becomes that it will not happen.

Shapiro said there is plenty of time for more public input.

“It is rare that Rich Shapiro and I agree on something,” Williams said.

He said the best way to kill a project is to delay it. He said the village should “seize the day” and accept this state investment. He called it a major aesthetic upgrade for the village core.

Shapiro said the project already lost two years over “spurious complaints” and “conspiracies” about conflicts of interest.

A group of 19 former APA employees and board members wrote a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul expressing opposition to the move and questioning the transparency and ethics of the process that led to this site being chosen for the new headquarters. These allegations led to an investigation into Barb Rice from the state Inspector General’s office, which concluded earlier this summer, finding that the allegations were “unsubstantiated.”

Clyde Baker, who co-owns the nearby Rice Furniture store, wanted to address what he called “personal attacks and conspiracy theories” lodged against him and his family.

Barb Rice, who used to own the furniture store, is now the executive director for the APA.

Baker said the idea that the Rice family supports the project for personal gain is “ridiculous.”

“Let me be clear about one thing. I am not here to sell furniture,” Baker said.

Rice Furniture used to sell furniture to the APA, but does not anymore, he said.

Tammara Van Ryn had concerns about the loss of public parking in the lot from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. during weekdays, and the APA might have some vehicles in the lot on weekends.

The property is the endpoint of the Saranac Lake Riverwalk and sits right on the Saranac River.

She said this would restrict parking access to the river and the Riverwalk.

Van Ryn said that when the lease is up four decades from now, the building the village will inherit will not be in good shape.

Mark Wilson said the support for the project was based on “generalities.” He questioned if the predicted economic bonanza would happen.

A professional consultation report from Colliers Engineering and Design estimates the economic impact of APA employees visiting local businesses at $376,000 per year.

tied to 33 Petrova Ave.

Wilson said the village should keep 1-3 Main St. as a solution for its emergency services headquarters.

Peter Seward said he was unclear on how this furthers APA’s mission. He felt that the APA is in a good spot next to other state agencies – including its “sister organization,” the state Department of Environmental Conservation – at the “Little Albany” complex in Ray Brook.

In the past, McKeever has said that the current headquarters — a 1950s-era log cabin at the “Little Albany” campus shared with New York State Police and DEC — is “past its usable life.”

He referenced photos of wood rot on the logs, gaps between the logs on the exterior of the lodge and a photo of a bat sitting on the back of a chair. Because of the gaps, he said it is common for bats, mice and bees to come into the headquarters. The gaps also let in cold air, making the building energy inefficient.

The three-story 1-3 Main St. building was built by the son of the legendary Adirondack guide and hotelier Paul Smith in 1927. From 1903 until 1986, electric and railway companies operated at the site. The village bought the property in 1986.