SARANAC LAKE- The village Board of Trustees approved a revised lease agreement Monday with Myriad RBM, one of two biotech companies planning to move here from Lake Placid.
Mayor Clyde Rabideau said Myriad's parent company requested several "refinements" to the five-year lease the board approved in November.
"What had happened was the document we approved last time, which had gone through the Austin (Texas) corporate headquarters, got kicked over to the Utah corporate headquarters, where Myriad is based, and they requested that we make some clarifications," Rabideau said.
Among the changes, the revised lease spells out the number of parking spaces that will be available for Myriad in the roughly 50-space parking lot next to the village offices, all three floors of which the company will be leasing. Myriad can use up to 39 spaces and could get another 10 if the village police department moves to another location, although there is no plan for that now.
Another change allows Myriad to sub-lease the premises, but the village required the company to "remain on the hook" if the sub-lessor defaults on the lease, Rabideau said.
Trustee Allie Pelletieri asked if the parking arrangement would encroach on the skateboard park that's located at the back of the parking lot or impact plans for a new skateboard park nearby.
Village Manager John Sweeney said the proposal wouldn't affect the skateboard park as it's currently laid out. The new skateboard park, Sweeney said, will be built off the current parking lot and closer to a bank of land, "so in essence it frees up the additional space in the current blocked off area."
Village police would continue to be responsible for parking enforcement in the lot. It would be available for general public parking after normal business hours and on weekends.
Pelletieri also asked about the sub-lease terms.
"What if they were to sub-lease it for 12 dollars and 50 cents a square foot, to make money off us?" he asked. "It actually seems like we're giving them a pretty good rate at 8 dollars and 70 cents. I don't think it would be right for them to turn around and make money on our lease."
Rabideau said the $8.70 per square foot that Myriad will pay the village may seem like a "good deal on the surface," but he noted that the company will be spending $200,000 to $300,000 on interior renovations to the village-owned building.
"They aren't going to get their money back," Rabideau said. "In theory, they would lose a lot of money. They're going to plunk down a quarter of a million (dollars) on the internal retrofit, so if they were to leave after two to three years, they would sacrifice that."
Rabideau said Myriad asked to add the sub-lease terms in the event that it decides to spin off a new subsidiary company.
The vote to approve the revised lease was unanimous.
The village plans to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate the building's elevator, windows and heating and ventilation systems before the space is occupied by Myriad, although village officials have said the building needs the upgrades, regardless of who uses it.
The village will relocate its offices to the second floor of the Harrietstown Town Hall. Boxes of office supplies and equipment could be seen stacked up on the first floor of the village offices Monday night.
Contracts on the elevator and window replacement projects were awarded this fall. That work is expected to begin soon, village Treasurer Paul Ellis said. Bids on the heating and ventilation system upgrades will be opened later this week.