ITHACA, N.Y. — A nearby scrap metal magnate has purchased a property on Ithaca’s waterfront, taking a rare opportunity to re-acquire land he already sold years ago.
Adam Weitsman, the Skaneateles-based billionaire entrepreneur who made his fortune growing Upstate Shredding into one of the largest scrap metal recyclers in the country, purchased back the property at 132 Cherry Street from local real estate developer Todd Fox on July 31.
According to the deed filing, Weitsman purchased the property back for $1,111,000 – $89,000 less than what Fox paid for the property when he bought it from Weitsman in December 2021.
When Fox purchased the parcel, the intent was to redevelop it into a mixed-use apartment project. “The Hive,” approved by the city Planning Board in 2022, called for a five-story, 175,000 square-foot apartment complex with 143 units, amenity and retail space. The one-story commercial building on the site was demolished in preparation for the project.
However, the project ran into difficulties obtaining financing due to high interest rates. It also ran into issues when seeking a tax abatement agreement with the Tompkins County Industrial Development Authority, because the property falls outside of the city’s Community Investment Incentive Tax Abatement Program (CIITAP) density zone. Efforts to expand the zone to include 132 Cherry Street encountered significant reluctance from the IDA, and pursuit of a tax abatement deal was discontinued. The project plans, financially stalled, were put up for sale alongside the 1.38-acre property.
Asked about plans for the property, Weitsman said he hasn’t determined what he will do next, saying he bought it back purely for the investment. Fox had offered to sell the property back to him as part of their initial 2021 deal, which gave Weitsman right of first refusal. That means Weitsman had first dibs should Fox decide to sell, and Weitsman felt it was a good investment opportunity — though, as he stressed, he doesn’t know what that investment will ultimately be.
“Building apartment complexes is out of my sweet spot,” said Weitsman. He stated he was open to re-sale — in fact, a $1.89 million listing with Warren Real Estate is already online — or redevelopment of the property as a joint venture with a real estate developer, whether that be using the plans for “The Hive,” or another proposal.
“I think there’s a lot of potential in the waterfront still,” Weitsman said. “But my strong suit is buying the land. That’s the easy part. It will never be me, the one who’s building.”
Weitsman did make clear, though, that Upstate Shredding will not be returning to the site, nor will plans for a metals processing facility in the outlying towns be moving forward either.
“I’m just not up to expanding the scrap business in [the Ithaca] region. We looked at some properties up in Lansing, it was just hard to make it work,” he said. “People just bring it to Owego now.”
Technically speaking, the project plans remain approved from two years of initial Site Plan Approval, which was granted in late September 2022. After that time, any plan to move forward with the proposal would require re-approval from the Planning Board, though that’s typically not a major issue so long as the plans remain the same as before, and can be done in just one meeting. Any other development plan would have to go through the full process of Site Plan Review and the several months that can involve.
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