Major health, biz, apt project eyed in Queensbury

By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer

Three major local health care providers — Hudson Headwaters Health Network, Glens Falls Hospital and OrthoNY plus Albany Med — are joining an effort to create a medical campus on 14 wooded acres owned by Hudson Headwaters at 249 Corinth Road, next to Sky Zone in Queensbury.

The campus would feature a two-story, 70,000 sq. ft. medical office building, two three-story 48 unit apartment buildings, a one-story commercial/retail building, and a drive-thru restaurant.

The plan was laid out by its proponents at a workshop meeting of the Queensbury Town Board on May 12.

They said the medical office building would house an OrthoNY MRI unit, Albany Med specialty care, Hudson Headwaters primary care, Glens Falls Hospital rehab services, Dr. Amjad Hammad’s Ballston Spa-based ophthalmology practice Eyes NY, and a dermatology group.

For the housing, perks of one month’s free rent and a waived security deposit would be given to employees of the medical office building, incentivizing them to live onsite.

OrthoNY orthopedic surgeon Lenny Goldstock, who is working with Albany-based Paulsen Development on the project, said at the May meeting, “This is the most exciting project we’ve worked on, because of the collaboration between private practice, a government based healthcare system, and a hospital system.”

“Nobody gets along anymore, but I’ve been harassing [Hudson Headwaters CEO Tucker Slingerland] for a long time to work together. And he’s got a huge primary care network that has a hard time gaining access to specialty care.”

Dr. Goldstock said, “What this project serves is the capacity for Tucker to see somebody with a torn rotator cuff, or glaucoma, or squamous cell carcinoma, and be able to walk down the road or across the parking lot and have access to specialty care. A lot of these patients now are having to get in a car and drive to Saratoga or Albany.”

“Building a medical office building is not that exciting, right?” said Dr. Goldstock. “But building a community here, a medical destination, especially for a community that lacks those specialists — I can’t get somebody in to see a neurologist, or a rheumatologist, or endocrinologist — it’s six months. But we’re trying to provide that to you here.”

Dr. Slingerland, Hudson Headwaters CEO and practicing physician, said, “For the Albany Med space, we’re really hoping they send up some of the super specialized people that we don’t have in this community — pediatric cardiology would be a good example. There’s some services like that, that Hudson Headwaters or the Hospital doesn’t have.

“We have a lot of patients for whom it’s a big deal to go from Warrensburg to Glens Falls for care, but going down to Albany is like going to New York City.”

Dr. Slingerland praised the uniqueness of the project, saying “I spend a lot of time driving around the region visiting medical locations, and I can’t think of a single other location where you have a federally qualified health center [Hudson Headwaters], private practices, a community hospital, and a tertiary hospital, all in one building.”

Dr. Goldstock said Ballston Spa-based ophthalmologist Dr. Amjad Hammad, who he said is Jordanian, would bring in Jordanian citizens who have done their medical training in the U.S. and “start a management service organization here where he manages these physicians.”

“And he’s going to take especially those specialists that you don’t have — neurology, endocrinology, rheumatology, GI, cardiology — and take these Jordanian citizens that are highly trained here and put them to work in your community,” said Dr. Goldstock.

“They stay two years, they get a Green Card, they can stay forever. I think he has the backing, believe it or not, of the King.”

Dr. Goldstock continued, “What we want to do is have walkability for those new physicians that can’t afford a $750,000 house. So, say [Dr. Hammad] recruits 20 physicians. He can say to them, we can have apartments right here that you can walk to and work here.”

Dr. Goldstock noted x-ray techs, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners in his practice could also live in the apartments, and he said, “I’m coming to work here, I’m going to live here.”

“We’re creating a medical community on this site,” Dr. Goldstock said.

Explaining why Paulsen Development added apartments and commercial buildings to the project, he said, “We want to buy this site in entirety from Hudson Headwaters. We need a density to be able to do that. We can’t buy this entire parcel with just the medical. So we got a little creative and added some commercial up front, and made the whole story work by doing the multi-family on the back side.”

Paulsen Development owner Rich Paulsen said of the apartments, “We want to make sure that whatever we build, the market can absorb. We’re not going to build something here where we have to have a tenant pay $2,600 a month. The market doesn’t support that.”

Town leaders were generally supportive at the meeting.

Supervisor John Strough said, “I think the Town Board likes this project for a lot of different reasons. I like the interdependency. I like the concept. You’re supplying medical needs.”

Ward 4 Councilman Tim McNulty said, “There will be professionals walking to work with families that will be supporting the tax base in the town, supporting the schools. So I think it’s a win-win.”

Ward 2 Councilman Scott Gushlaw said, “This is exciting.”

But Ward 3 Councilwoman Rachel Hajos asked about the traffic impact, noting, “That corridor is getting worse.”

Dr. Goldstock replied, “We don’t have a margin where we can provide relief to traffic…This project is tough to do financially, because of the cost of borrowing money and building today. I know traffic’s a problem, but I think your community will accept a little longer line when they now have a dermatologist, an endocrinologist, an orthopedic surgeon in their community.”

Dr. Goldstock said he’d “love to debate anybody,” on the merits of the project.

“This isn’t a warehouse full of toilets. This isn’t a bunch of fancy condos on a mountain,” he said, referring to F.W. Webb’s new $20 million facility at 369 Corinth Rd. and the plans for The Woods at West Mountain ski resort development.

“This is healthcare supporting your two biggest employers in this area: Glens Falls Hospital and Hudson Headwaters. They are our partners here. I think this is a great project for your community.”

Councilman McNulty said, “Traffic is an issue, but traffic is an issue everywhere. And I would hate for one project to have to be constricted by some type of traffic mitigation when we haven’t done it on anybody else. And shame on us for that.”

Supervisor Strough noted, “One of the other things to keep in mind is the character of the traffic. It appears to me that an enterprise that you’re operating here is going to have a fairly constant flow of traffic during the day, as opposed to high a.m. or 5 p.m. peaks.”

Project engineer Scott Lansing of Ballston Spa-based Lansing Engineering said a traffic impact study is underway.

“As far as parking access and traffic, we feel we meet all the town’s requirements,” he said.

Supervisor Strough said the project also presents zoning challenges.

“As far as the zoning goes, we’re going to have to be very imaginative and creative, and [town Senior Planner Stu Baker] is working on that. I don’t think he’s having a good time with it.”

Mr. Lansing said the town does not have a Planned Unit Development designation that “directly suits everything that we are proposing here, because we are a mix of commercial and multi-family.”

Mr. Baker said Paulsen Development is working on an application that would include some proposed zoning changes.

“We look forward to receiving PDF’s of the materials for review,” he said.

At the end of the meeting, Dr. Goldstock applied some time pressure.

“You’d be very proud of this project, so I want you to think about it. There is a ‘time to market,’ because we’ve got these groups that are interested, and if we can’t get traction then I can’t hold them to commit.”

When The Chronicle checked with the town Friday, an application for the project still had not been submitted.

Dr. Goldstock and Dr. Hammad, contacted by The Chronicle about the project, had not responded by press-time.

Project link to Jordanians & the King?

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Lenny Goldstock, advocating for the Corinth Road medical-apartment-commercial project, told the Queensbury Town Board that Ballston Spa-based ophthalmologist Dr. Amjad Hammad would add an international element to the campus.

Dr. Goldstock said Dr. Hammad, who is Jordanian, would bring Jordanian citizens who have done their medical training in the U.S. and “start a management service organization here where he manages these physicians.”

“And he’s going to take especially those specialists that you don’t have — neurology, endocrinology, rheumatology, GI, cardiology — and take these Jordanian citizens that are highly trained here and put them to work in your community,” said Dr. Goldstock.

“They stay two years, they get a Green Card, they can stay forever. I think he has the backing, believe it or not, of the King.”

Neither Dr. Hammad nor Dr. Goldstock had returned calls for comment by press-time.

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