The news was publicized in a Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority press release Wednesday. The buyer is a team headed by two experienced Capital Region developers, Jeff Buell and Chris Spraragen. Spraragen owns and operates Schenectady Hardware and Electric, one of the largest electrical contracting businesses in the area, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary.
“We commend Ellis for its stewardship of this campus,” Buell said in the press release. “While we are not blind to the enormous challenge of converting an aging hospital building into a new vibrant use, we have spent the past year looking at this building and at this campus and we see the great potential here. We are excited to move forward with a community-first mindset and understand the very real mantle we are placing on our shoulders.
” The campus, once home to St. Clare’s Hospital, has been a financial drain on Ellis for years. Despite encompassing the Ellis Residential and Rehabilitation Center and the Belanger School of Nursing, the property is 80% vacant and imposes a yearly cost of $5 million on the health care provider.
Ellis has owned the campus since 2008, but for several years it has been steadily transferring services from McClellan Street to other facilities, like Ellis Hospital and Bellevue Woman’s Center in Niskayuna. One of the few Ellis initiatives remaining on the campus is the Residential and Rehabilitation Center, a small nursing home. After two fruitless years of searc.