ALBANY — Real estate mogul Francesco Galesi, whose empire grew from a decommissioned military depot in Guilderland to include casinos, hotels, logistics and industrial parks, died Friday at age 95 in Palm Beach, Fla.
His death was confirmed by David Buicko, who joined the Galesi Group in 1982 and has served as its president and CEO for the past decade.
A New Jersey native, Marine veteran and Princeton graduate, Galesi scored his first major success in the Capital Region with the 1969 purchase of the Voorheesville Army Depot, a surplus warehouse complex that his Rotterdam-based company transformed into the 2.6-million-square-foot Northeastern Industrial Park. He went on to replicate that project with industrial parks in Rotterdam and Scotia, and the launch of the logistics company Distribution Unlimited.
The Galesi Group later redeveloped parts of downtown Schenectady, including the MVP Health Care headquarters, and more recently the $500 million Mohawk Harbor project — built on the former American Locomotive Company site — that includes hotels, apartments and condominiums, as well as the Rivers Casino complex. The firm’s Albany projects include the state comptroller’s headquarters on State Street…