On the blank canvas of an empty arena, George Pensel dreams.
The arena’s cement floor, with its oval the size of an Olympic hockey rink, will become a sea of boats. The locker rooms become window-walled sales offices. That big overhead door in the corner will open for 40-foot boats. The wall that separates the arena space from the front lobby of the building will largely be removed, and a greeter will stand there to meet people.
George Pensel, owner and founder of Boats by George on Route 149 in Queensbury, is in the process of buying the Lake George Forum, and he has ideas for the former hockey and event space: 49,000 square feet of them.
The headquarters of his company will move from Route 149 to the Forum at 2200 Route 9, just south of Lake George Village.
He'll leave behind an 8,000 square foot showroom where he has sold his primary line--Cobalt Boats--since 1982 and enter the 29,000 square foot arena, Pensel said.
“As my business grows, I’m going to grow with it,” he said during an interview today.
The sales staff and managers along with financing administrators will move there, too. Boating accessories will be sold where the lobby's cafe now sits. The kitchen that served the cafe back when the Forum hosted high school hockey and tournaments will remain, but behind a wall.
He may just add a sixth line of boats, a smaller line of outboards more suited to the smaller lakes and ponds of the Adirondack Park.
“I can’t say that I’ve got a line of boats decided on,” he said.
That line will join the higher end Cobalt and Chris Craft lines; the Malibu and Axis watersport lines; and the line of Barletta pontoon boats that the company already sells to Lake George or regional boaters.
In the new space, he thinks he can sell 150 or 200 boats a year.
The total projected cost of the purchase and renovation is $3.85 million, Pensel wrote in documents filed with the Warren-Washington Industrial Development Agency. The first $3 million goes toward the property and the rest toward renovation.
In that application which asks for sales and mortgage tax relief, he also is asking for storage of 50 boats.
“I’ve been thinking about this building for three or four years, now,” Pensel said.
He approached Ralph Macchio Sr., the owner of the Forum, back then, but other ideas got in the way. Pensel purchased property and docks in Warner Bay, he said, and was busy just running his marina.
As recently as last year, the Village of Lake George began looking to make the under-used space into a theater. The town was looking to have a convention center.
“I didn’t want to compete with the town,” Pensel said.
But in August, he went back to Macchio and they agreed to seriously negotiate after Labor Day. He hopes the sale will close in January, he said.
Right now, the architects are focusing on the main floor of the Forum, not just the office spaces and showroom, but how to change the cooling system into a heating system, how to make the lights more friendly. The facade outside will change.
After that he can decide what to do with the second floor--it has a bar and was once a gym. He might bring the gym back, or not, he has not decided, he said.
The first floor is a major job in itself, he said, and may not be done until late summer 2021.