It has been nearly eight years since the City of Batavia identified Samuel Savarino and his Savarino Companies as its developer for a run-down 3.3-acre downtown parcel known as Ellicott Station that formerly held a construction firm and a tire shop.
It would take another six years before construction actually began in May 2022 on the $24.9 million project, designed to redevelop the vacant and abandoned industrial brownfield site into 55 affordable apartments, a restaurant, a brewery and an events center.
The venture consists of a $20.7 million residential component and a $4.2 million commercial element at the former Santy’s Tires property and the former Soccio & Della Penna building.
Since then, though, the effort went off the rails when Savarino announced in late August that the company would be shutting down, putting the rest of the project in limbo, at best, or in jeopardy, at worst.
The developer had already defaulted on terms of its incentive agreement with the Genesee County Economic Development Center, and has faced intense criticism and the threat of legal action by some potential tenants. And since the project has not been completed, GCEDC is now seeking to recapture $1.1 million in sales, property and mortgage-recording tax breaks from Savarino. The developer also owes $35,000 in taxes to the school district.
“We effectively are out of this project at this point because of the default,” GCEDC CEO Steven Hyde said. “We got involved because of the potential to redevelop a blighted area in our downtown corridor. But the project has come to a screeching halt at this point.”
But Savarino said he hasn’t stopped working on the project, even though he has no employees. Construction on the six-story residential structure is about 75% complete, he said, and workers are finishing up the building exterior and winterizing it to ensure it is weather-tight, in collaboration with the tax-credit investor and Five Star Bank as the…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply