Site Committee Updates - October 2024
The Site Committee team is continuing to keep their head down on making progress with more important planning. After some iterative design between Rick Mausert (ECCG Board Vice President) and NCG, we have settled on a conceptual layout to the store now that we have determined that 1) Saratoga National Bank is working to find a new location not at 251 State Street, and 2) we will not invest in building a warehouse on the back of the old DMV building, and will instead use the first floor of the DMV building for food storage, processing and administrative offices.
Some other progress of note. We are:
Working with Metroplex to see about completing some well needed reconfiguration to the parking to make it more inviting to shoppers
Close to signing a contract with C2 Design for our architecture services
Working to get detailed estimates for fit-up and equipment
See below for our conceptual layout for our store (remember it’s a work in progress!)
Site Committee Updates - September 2024
With our Letter of Intent signed, the team continues to meet weekly with Metroplex and stay in regular communications with Civco Inc. Civco is working with representatives of Saratoga National Bank to determine their reconfiguration plan.
With the contract signed with National Co-op Grocers (NCG) for the feasibility phase of the project, the Site Committee has gotten busy meeting weekly with NCG.
NCG will be coming for a site visit to Schenectady for a full day of meetings on September 11 where we will be meeting with the multiple parties to move the project forward. NCG advised the Site Committee of the need for an updated Market Study for the site and for current conditions. Our Board of Directors contracted with G2G Research to conduct these updates, as they were the firm that completed our last Market Study for the proposed site at 530 Liberty (OrthoNY).
G2G has already delivered the updated Market Study! This is a critical input for our Pro Forma (being developed in conjunction with NCG) and any bank financing. We are thankful to our partners at G2G Research for quickly turning this updated study for us. There were no major surprises. The sales forecast per square foot was similar to the last market study and took into account the impacts of inflation over the past two years.
Lease development will depend upon determination of the bank’s plans and the output of the Pro Forma we’re developing with NCG.
Site Committee Updates - July 2024
Last week the Electric City Community Grocery signed a Letter of Intent with Civco Inc for a site in downtown Schenectady. This did two things for the co-op:
It set the groundwork for creating a development plan that will lead to a lease for the site in the coming 60 days.
This LOI satisfies the last City pre-requisite for the $1,000,000 ARPA grant!
The contract with the City of Schenectady will be signed in short order. This marks a new phase for our path to opening our downtown cooperatively owned grocery!
Because of the extensive work that is required for the site, we will be going deep into cost estimation and lease negotiation. We have developed a team including C2 Design Group, National Co+op Grocers, Bill Sweet (construction manager), Civco Inc, Metroplex and the Co-op Site Committee.
With our site chosen and public financial support secured, we are now moving into a new and exciting phase of site development planning! This is all big news - but we’re holding off on making a big public announcement.
We look forward to broadly announcing this site to the public once a lease for the site is official. Now, it is important to get more members to support our co-op grocery. Please share within your community to activate participation. Encourage your friends to join by clicking the link here.