| Second building coming to office park in Colonie CAPITAL DISTRICT BUSINESS REVIEW April 30 – May 6, 2001 By William Tuthill Business Review Reporter First Columbia, LLC plans to break ground by June on the second of four planned buildings in the new office park it is developing off Route 9 in Latham. The first building, 26 Century Hill Plaza, was competed last year and is 90 percent leased. First Columbia itself is one of the occupants in the 45,000 square foot building. Another is Bette & Cring LLC, a construction services company. One of the members of the first is Matthew Bette, brother of First Columbia owner Kevin Bette. The second building, at 24 Century Hill Plaza, will be the same size. Kevin Bette said he has lined up tenants, but he declined to name them because none has signed a lease. When completed, the four buildings of Century Hill Plaza will total 300,000 square feet on 22 acres with more than 1,200 parking spaces. First Columbia got municipal approval in 1999 for the entire project. That way, the individual buildings can be put up according to demand. To break ground, all that is needed is a building permit from the Town of Colonie. "Most tenants want to be in yesterday". Bette said. The market for Class A office space such as Century Hill Plaza is tight. In the fall, the vacancy rate in the Albany suburbs stood at 3 percent, according to a report by CB Richard Ellis Robert Cohn, a commercial brokerage in Albany. That compared with a suburban office vacancy rate of about 10 percent nationally. Real estate officials attribute the low vacancy rate to strong demand for new space, especially from the medical, insurance and financial sectors, and to the reluctance of Capital District developers to put up buildings on speculation. |
