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Last July, Ballston Spa National Bank acquired this 17 Low St. building in Ballston Spa, the former location of Manna’s Restaurant and Banquet House. The Saratoga County Economic Opportunity Council has expressed interest in buying the building. However, one critic says a non-taxpaying organization in Ballston Spa’s business district would stifle the village’s economic growth. (ERICA MILLER/The Saratogian)
BALLSTON SPA — Ballston Spa National Bank is in talks with the Saratoga County Economic Opportunity Council (EOC) over the sale of a village property most people know as Manna’s Restaurant and Banquet House.
The property, located at 17 Low St., housed restaurateur Ron Manna’s business from 2004 until May of last year, when he phased it out in order to focus on developing the Brickyard Tavern and Grill.
BSNB President Christopher R. Dowd said Monday that the bank acquired the Manna’s property in a foreclosure sale in July 2010 and is considering selling it for an undisclosed sum.
“We’ve had discussions with Saratoga EOC, we’ve had discussions with other (parties),” Dowd said. He declined to identify the other potential buyers.
As of Jan. 14, the 9,920-square-foot building on Low Street was listed for sale for $595,000 on www.loopnet.com.
A federally designated nonprofit agency, Saratoga County EOC provides community services programs such as a food pantry, a soup kitchen, Head Start preschool, the WIC program and the Latino Community Advocacy Program (LCAP), among others.
The agency has had offices at 40 New St. in Saratoga Springs for 10 years but provides services at several locations — the Head Start is located at the Church of St. Peter on Broadway in Saratoga Springs, and the soup kitchen is run out of the Presbyterian-New England Congregational Church on Circular Street.
Saratoga County EOC director Julie Hoxsie said Monday the agency has been looking to move its operations to a larger facility for a couple of years. Ballston Spa is ideal because half of the agency’s customer base lives there, and the potential new site is near a bus line in the village, she said.
A move would also allow EOC to consolidate its offices — some employees have been working out of a temporary trailer next to the New Street offices.
“I think moving our operation would be a tremendous economic boost to Ballston Spa,” Hoxsie said, adding that the move would relocate the workplace of 45 employees who would use the villages’ drug stores, gas stations, restaurants, etc.
“We’re not a retail business that might go in there and go out of business or go in there and owe taxes,” she said.
Some members of the community do not agree. Dowd said the bank has received both positive and negative feedback from numerous citizens regarding the potential sale of the property to a non-taxpaying government agency.
Tina Mangino-Coffey, of the Mangino Chevrolet Buick dealership, distributed an e-mail Friday urging friends and business members in Ballston Spa to petition the bank to reconsider to sale of the property.
“Government-owned agencies that don’t produce tax revenue or don’t offer retail services don’t belong in the business district in any community,” Mangino-Coffey said Monday. “I want to make clear that the EOC and other government agencies like this do great work and are much-needed, but … they should never be located in the middle of a newly revitalized business district, which is the lifeblood of the village.”
Mangino-Coffey is a former president of the Ballston Spa Business and Professional Association and a member of the task force on job creation created last summer after Angelica Textiles folded, costing more than 100 people their jobs.
She suggested the bank work with local government and businesspeople to attract professionals, retailers and residents to the village, while considering offering EOC a spot on the 6-1/2-acre parcel of land it owns on Route 67 in the town of Ballston, where BSNB is planning construction of a new commercial building.
“The village has made great strides (in the area of economic development) in recent years and this possible sale would be devastating to these efforts,” Mangino-Coffey said.
She estimated the village would lose $16,000 a year in tax dollars if the 17 Low St. property were to be sold.
Dowd declined to comment specifically on the matter, saying only that “whichever way we go with that property, the welfare of the village of Ballston Spa will always be a prime consideration in our decision-making.”
Reach Mareesa Nicosia at mnicosia@saratogian.com or 583-8729, ext. 216.
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