By Christine Graf
Development of Perry Crossing, a 5-acre site located at3088 Route 50 in Wilton, is now complete. The property includes Advance Auto Parts, Sunmark Credit Union, and Chase Bank. Advance Auto Parts celebrated the grand opening of their 7,000-square-foot building in July. The 2,100-square-foot Sunmark Credit Union opened in September, and opening date for the 3,500-square-foot Chase Bank branch has yet to be announced by the company.
Perry Crossing was developed by Kenneth Brownell and Barry Feinman, principals at Vanguard-Fine LLC. of Guilderland. A full-service real estate development company, Vanguard-Fine operates in Upstate New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Eastern Pennsylvania. Established in 1994, the company owns or third-party leases more than 4 million square feet of retail, office, and industrial space.
“We bought the (Perry Crossing) property almost 7 years ago,” said Brownell. “It’s a great piece of property, and there weren’t really any properties left on Route 50. So, we purchased it, speculated on it, and waited for the right moment to develop it.”
It wasn’t until after the pandemic that Advanced Auto Parts and Sunmark Credit Union expressed interested in the site.
“We also had another tenant that was interested. They ended up backing out, and Chase ended up being in the market for a site. It worked out really well,” he said “They are creating a financial center and are looking to plug holes in the northeast. Albany happened to be a wide-open market for them, and our brokerage company has actually brokered a number of Chase branches.”
Although Chase is expanding in the Capital Region, other banks are consolidating locations.
“They are cutting back on branches, and a lot of their real estate is coming back up,” said Brownell, noting that the commercial real estate market has slowed significantly.
“The market right now is slowing down because of interest rates. There was a lot of development that went on for a 5-year stretch, but with higher interest rates and higher construction costs, a lot of projects that used to work don’t work anymore.”
In addition to rising construction costs, the skilled labor shortage is also impacting development.
“We don’t have enough labor,” he said. “They call it the graying tsunami—a lot of skilled tradesmen and construction workers are retiring, and there’s no younger folks coming into the construction trade. It’s a real problem.”
Despite the slowdown in the market, Vanguard-Fine has several development projects in the works. They include the 54,000 square foot Lear Jet Park near Albany airport and a 62,000 square foot self-storage facility in North Adams, Massachusetts.