Courtesy Prime Group
By Susan E. Campbell
Prime Group, a real estate investment company and a major owner/operator of self-storage units, plans to build a six-story building on Broadway in Saratoga Springs that would become its new office spaces and house other tenants.
The company has outgrown its office space at 85 Railroad Place in Saratoga Springs and is planning to relocate headquarters to the new construction on Broadway, opposite Congress Park, according to founder and chief executive Bob Moser.
The structure’s design calls for six stories with two levels of underground parking.
“Our staff will occupy the top two floors and the rest will be rented,” said Moser. “Tenants will be service providers such as lawyers, accountants and the types of companies Prime works with,” he said. “We are a relationship driven company.”
The administrative staff in Saratoga Springs is upward of 70 now and will grow to more than 100 by the time the building takes occupancy, he said.
“One hundred percent of the operation will be at the new site, including acquisitions, management, executive, and leasing staff,” said Moser.
On April 30, Moser’s team met by video with the city Planning Board to present its mixed-use, $25 million project at 269 Broadway, on one-half acre of raw land purchased by Moser from the personal portfolio of Tom Roohan of Roohan Realty, he said.
The project team includes professionals from MJ Engineering, C2 Architecture and the law firm of Snyder Kiley Toohey Corbett & Co. LLP.
Moser and his colleagues looked for many months for a building that could accommodate the company’s growing needs but found nothing on the market. The location at 269 Broadway is designed for an entrance and exit off Hamilton Street, he said.
“Parking in the area is a scarce commodity, so we pushed for two levels of underground parking for the convenience of employees,” he said.
Prime Group is a consolidator of storage facilities. The company builds some of its facilities from scratch, such as the one on Route 50 in Wilton, or aggregates existing facilities into Prime’s institutional quality paradigm.
“A Prime Storage facility means it is of a certain size, in a modern style, and has a great location in a retail corridor,” Moser said. “There is a new facility added nationally every four to five months.”
Demand for more storage space is driven by a number of factors, mostly lifestyle changes cause as divorce, moving, inheritance, and changing business needs, according to Moser.
He started his business while a junior at Union College. He graduated with honors in economics and his senior thesis was on the valuation of investment real estate. The self-storage units he owns and operates are worth well over $2 billion today.
There are no plans to sell the building at 85 Railroad Place, which may be used for overflow space or perhaps to house a new division, he said.
“With the spread of COVID-19 and government officials adjusting to working from home, my fingers are crossed that we can break ground at 269 Broadway by the end of this year,” said Moser.
Visit www.goprimegroup.com for more information about Prime Group.