Shodeen Group addresses why majority of commercial space in downtown Oswego complex remains vacant

As the Shodeen Group gets ready to start construction on the second building for The Reserve at Hudson Crossing luxury apartment complex in downtown Oswego, village trustees have raised the question of why the majority of the commercial space on the building’s ground level remains vacant.

The first building at The Reserve at Hudson Crossing opened in February 2021. It is a six-story building with 176 apartment units on the upper floors along with 10,000 square feet of commercial space for restaurants and shops on the building’s ground level that fronts Washington Street.

“You have vacant storefront at the front,” Oswego village trustee Kit Kuhrt said in addressing Shodeen Group President Dave Patzelt during a recent Oswego Village Board meeting. “The village keeps bringing tenants to you guys and you guys aren’t closing deals with the tenants.”

Patzelt said they would like to have the remaining space filled. Oak + Bean specialty coffee and wine bar and Tabletop Game Shop opened in the building at the end of 2022.

“It behooves us to have somebody in that space,” he replied. “We’ve gone through two brokers trying to lease that space. We’ve had in the range of seven to eight different prospective restaurateurs that wanted to come into that space. We have worked with village staff and economic development department on at least two if not three of those in trying to get the restaurateur to come into that space.”

Patzelt said one of the big challenges is the upfront buildout costs for a restaurant.

“This is a new building, so we’re talking in the range of a $1 million to a $1.5 million to invest and build that out for the restaurateur,” he said. “Restaurateurs have asked us to front that money. We ask for some guarantees to it and we are unable to get the guarantees. So unfortunately, we have to suffer the consequences of that decision, which is we don’t have a tenant in there. We’d love to have a tenant in there, whether it’s a restaurateur or another commercial user, retail user, office user, whatever it may be, we’d like a tenant in there.”

Kuhrt said it also doesn’t benefit the village for the space to be vacant.

“We need sales tax revenue,” he said.

During the Jan. 21 Oswego Village Board meeting, the majority of village trustees approved a fourth amendment to the redevelopment agreement between the village and Reserve at Hudson Crossing LLC regarding the construction of the second building.

The agreement stipulates that construction of the 104-unit building on a vacant lot at the northwest corner of Adams and Jackson streets will begin no later than June 1, with completion around September 2026. In addition, financing agreements must be in place by May 15.