Clinton Plaza Property Manager Speaks Out on Vacancy, Parking

By MONICA CALZOLARI
ONEONTA

A portion of every City of Oneonta Common Council meeting is dedicated to hearing concerns from the general public. At the January 7 Common Council meeting, Jacki Hunt, the property manager for Clinton Plaza, read excerpts from a letter she distributed to council members.

Robert Semaya, manager of LFT Amsterdam LLC, the owner of Clinton Plaza and Levites Realty Management LLC, was not able to be at the meeting in person. He sent his property manager to address the entity’s concerns about how the shortage of convenient parking downtown has contributed to a 40 percent vacancy rate in Clinton Plaza.

Hunt shared that Clinton Plaza currently has seven vacancies, including the recent closure of Fiesta Mexican Grill & Cantina. An eighth vacancy is expected when the Oneonta Public Transit office moves to its new location, the new Transportation Hub under construction on Market Street. Completion of the hub is projected by September 2025.

Another tenant has threatened not to renew if the Rehabilitation Support Services housing project is approved.

Hunt read that the owners of Clinton Plaza are “in favor of the continued use of 27 Market Street as a parking facility for the downtown community and in opposition to the proposed sale of 27 Market Street to Rehabilitation Support Services.”

If RSS builds 50 units of affordable housing on 27 Market Street, not only will the current temporary spaces disappear, but RSS’ new tenants and the commercial businesses on the first floor will require additional parking spaces.

Hunt emphasized, “Sufficient and convenient parking is the life blood of retail businesses! Without sufficient parking, no business can survive.”

Hunt pointed out that Oneonta lost 433 parking spaces when the multilevel parking structure on Market Street was demolished, and gained 50-60 temporary parking spaces at 27 Market Street.

The parking spaces inside Clinton Plaza are designated for customers, tenants and employees. Given the overall loss of parking spaces, non-Clinton plaza customers have been using these designated spaces.

Hunt read, “If the 27 Market Street parking lot is sold for the construction of a mixed-use building…the 50-60 parking spaces at 27 Market Street will be lost for good. This will put even more pressure on our tenants at Clinton Plaza as well as other downtown businesses.

“Without sufficient parking, prospective customers will simply shop or dine elsewhere….In short, without sufficient parking, downtown Oneonta it will become a ‘retail desert.’”

“Placing the proposed RSS facility in the heart of downtown Oneonta, serving a limited number of people, is not a good idea as it exacerbates the commercial vacancy problem, as well as the parking crisis. And, it is a crisis,” Hunt emphasized. “Rather, 27 Market Street should be used for a purpose that benefits all the residents of Oneonta. That use is as a parking lot.”

In Other Business

Despite intense debates during December 2024 Common Council meetings about the deficit and the need to cut expenses, the 2025 budget was approved.

At the January 7 meeting, the Common Council approved an $8,500.00 salary increase for Fire Chief Brian Knapp. He requested a $13,000.00 pay increase and threatened to resign if not granted pay equity, saying his position was “undervalued” based on research. Knapp’s salary was $95,400.00 in 2023 and $108,600.00 in 2024. The council agreed to a negotiated pay increase.

Two representatives of Wendel Companies, the architectural and engineering design and construction administration firm overseeing the construction on Market Street, also attended the January 7 meeting.

Liz Colvin and Susan Sherwood of Wendel answered questions for nearly 40 minutes. Their original fee estimate back in May 2022 was for $1.9 million. In December, City Administrator Greg Mattice explained that the scope of the $23.3 million Market Street project changed several times over the past three years.

Originally, in 2022, the parking structure was estimated as needing repair. Once it needed to be demolished, the project price increased. The council approved a modified fee of $3,058,000.00 on January 2, 2025.