Construction on the 70-unit Saranac Lofts apartment building in Saranac Lake is seen on Friday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — The 70-unit Saranac Lofts apartment complex on Broadway is rising from the ground fast.

After the start of work was delayed last year by the discovery of contaminated soil and the state designating the site as a brownfield, developers Kearney Group say they have cleaned up the gasoline contamination on the main site where The Loft, a four-story structure holding 63 apartments, will stand.

“The winter was kind to us,” Kearney Group Vice President Sean Kearney said. “We kept plugging along, and we never stopped for a day. Even when it snowed, our guys were out there shoveling.”

Construction workers were seen this week framing the top floors of the building.

Kearney said he expects to start accepting applications in the fall and plans to be finished building by this winter.

The smaller building, The Carry — at the former street-side Adirondack Tire site — will start to be cleaned of gasoline contamination in a few months, Kearney said.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation, which is overseeing the contamination cleanup, considers the remediation as “ongoing.”

The 1.11-acre site at 120 Broadway has two lots and is the former location of Adirondack Tire.

The Carry will be a three-story building with seven apartments and plans for commercial offices for start-up businesses, artists and co-working spaces.

The Loft is designed to include 46 one-bedroom units and 17 two-bedroom units.

The project was initially scheduled to break ground in the spring of 2023, but it was delayed by the brownfield cleanup.

Brownfields are properties set for redevelopment where contaminants in the soil and water exceed environmental and health standards. In this case, the problem was former underground gasoline storage from a former filling station, automotive repair shop and woodworking factory.

Kearney said they knew a cleanup needed to happen, but it took longer than expected. He said it’s too early to tell if this has impacted the schedule.

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Funding

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Kearney said the project relies heavily on funding from the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal. The lion’s share of the funding comes from HCR in the form of tax credits earned for offering housing at affordable rates, he said. These tax credits are sold to investors — in this case, investment bankers Raymond James and Webster Bank.

A portion would be rented to people earning 60% or less of Franklin County’s median income — currently $60,270 per household, annually, in 2022 dollars, according to the U.S. Census data. A household making $36,162 or less would be eligible for this.

Others would be rented to people earning between 80% and 130% of the median income. These eligible rates max out at $48,216 and $78,351, respectively.

Kearney said this funding was challenging to get because there’s a lot of competition among projects across the state. They were not successful in their first year of applying but got an award in the second year.

Kearney said a payment in lieu of taxes agreement with the town was “of paramount importance.”

In 2022, the Harrietstown board approved a 30-year PILOT agreement with the developers, a way for the town board to support a project that provides a public benefit if that project wouldn’t be able to happen without the break.

Under this PILOT, Kearney Group would pay the town a base of $70,000 for 30 years, with a 2% increase every year, instead of paying full taxes on the property. It’s impossible to know what the property value would be assessed at until the complex is built.

With the 2% annual increase, in the second year, Kearney Group would pay $71,400 — an additional $1,400 from the base. In the third year it would pay $72,828 — an additional $1,428 from the year prior. This would continue for nearly three decades.

Kearney said HCR’s Middle Income Housing Program is “wonderful.” It funds the “missing middle” for people at incomes between “affordable” and “market rate.” Affordable housing is supported through the tax credits, and market rate housing is not attainable by everyone, he said.

The developers are also eligible for tax credits to offset the costs of the brownfield cleanup.

The project got $6.5 million in 2022 from the state for affordable housing development.

It has been awarded a $100,000 grant through the village’s Energize Downtown Fund, which was set up by the Downtown Revitalization Initiative and is facilitated by the Franklin County Economic Development Corporation.

The project has also been awarded $400,000 through the village’s $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant to outfit The Carry with a co-working space for entrepreneurs.

Kearney said there are a lot of components in a project like this, and it is rare that they all come together.

“It’s a very complicated needle that you have to thread,” he said.

He said though construction costs are rising, the total estimated cost of the project has not risen yet.

“We do our own construction, so we’re able to manage construction costs better than most,” Kearney said.

The Saranac Lofts are being built by Parkview Development and Construction LLC.

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Artist apartment misconceptions

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Thirty-five units — half of them — would be designated for artists who meet eligibility requirements to live in.

The project has been commonly referred to as “artist apartments,” but the developers’ definition of an artist is pretty broad.

Artists get preference, Kearney said, but the units are not set aside for them. So if they don’t fill all those 35 units with artists, it’s not like they’re going to leave them empty, he said.

One member of the household — a child, a student, a partner or a single person — needs to be certified as an artist. Art does not need to be a full-time job for them, or even a source of income. They do have to show evidence of a body of work and an “ongoing pursuit” of the arts.