The Utica Industrial Development Agency held a public hearing on a proposal from True Storage Utica LLC to renovate a 165,000-plus-or-minus square-foot building at 501 Bleecker Street and to provide climate-controlled self-storage units while preserving an urban grocery store.

“This is Jack Spathe. I'm the executive director for the Utica Industrial Development Agency,” Spathe said during opening remarks. He described a transaction in which the agency would lease the facility from the company and then lease it back, and said the agency contemplates providing financial assistance through exemptions from sales and use taxes, exemptions from mortgage recording taxes and an abatement of real property taxes for a period of five years.

Spathe said the property is a roughly 3.59-acre parcel in the City of Utica, Oneida County, New York, and that the planned improvements include renovation of the building and paved areas and acquisition and installation of equipment to support climate-controlled storage. He told the hearing that the company will initially lease, operate and/or manage the facility; at the end of the lease term the agency would terminate its leasehold interest in the facility.

No members of the public spoke during the hearing. “Okay. There being no comments, I'm going to close the public hearing,” Spathe said.

Spathe said a final authorizing resolution describing the agency’s financial assistance and consistent with the agency’s Uniform Tax Exemption Policy will be adopted by the IDA prior to closing the contemplated transactions. The IDA did not vote on or adopt any resolution during the hearing; Spathe described the proposed assistance as what the agency "contemplates" and said final terms will be set in the authorizing resolution.

Background and next steps: the hearing provided an opportunity for public comment required under the agency’s process. The agency’s next steps, as described on the record, are adoption of a final authorizing resolution and any subsequent closing steps; the transcript did not specify dates for those actions or detailed dollar amounts for tax exemptions or projected public costs.