The flagship location of Swifty’s on Delaware Avenue in Delmar on Sunday. Orange “SEIZED” signs that were put up Dec. 4 had been removed prior to its Sunday reopening.
Tyler A. McNeil/Times Union
Swifty’s Colonie location on Everett Road is seen before reopening on Sunday.
Tyler A. McNeil/Times Union
The Delmar location of Swifty’s is seen on Dec. 4, with notices of being closed that day by the state.
Will Waldron/Times Union
Swifty’s Restaurant & Pub in Delmar on Saturday, after prominent signs announcing a tax seizure earlier this month had been removed.
Courtesy Caleb Sink
Seized notices from the state Department of Taxation and Finance are seen on the entrance to Swifty’s on Everett Road in Colonie on Dec. 4.
Will Waldron/Times Union
Two of the three Swifty’s Restaurant & Pub locations seized Dec. 4 by the state for nonpayment of more than $2 million in taxes reopened Sunday, according to owner Dave Swift, who said that he “messed up.”
In a statement texted to the Times Union on Saturday night, Swift said, “I wasn’t trying to get away with anything; things got away from me.”
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He did not reply to a follow-up question about how the total owed in unpaid sales and withholding taxes grew over nine years to what the state Department of Taxation and Finance said after the seizure was $2.2 million. He also did not address questions about whether he agreed with the state’s figure, if he had made a payment to enable the release of the properties in Colonie, Delmar and Utica, and whether he had come to repayment terms with the state.
Swift said the Swifty’s at 95 Everett Road in Colonie, open since 2015, and the 2009 original at 367 Delaware Ave. in Delmar would reopen Sunday. As for the third location, Swift told the Times Union, “hopefully Utica to follow.” He was not more specific about a projected date.
Prominent orange “SEIZED” signs that were posted on the Swifty’s locations had been removed by Saturday afternoon in Colonie and Delmar. On Saturday night, the lights for the large street-side sign at the Colonie location were off, but several vehicles were in the parking lot, including a pickup truck that appeared to be having items unloaded into the restaurant, and people were visible in the bar area, where TVs could be seen playing.
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The state database of tax warrants, marked as having been updated Saturday, listed 15 warrants for Swift personally, Swifty’s Restaurant & Pub and corporate entities named SRGL Inc. and SRGU Inc. doing business as Swifty’s in Albany County and another five in Oneida County for SRGU Inc. as the Utica Swifty’s. Issuance dates for the Albany County restaurant warrants range from February 2022 to earlier this month; for Utica, from June 2022 to September of this year. All but one in both counties are for unpaid sales tax. At the time of the seizure, state records showed warrants dating to 2016.
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A spokesman for the state Department of Taxation and Finance had not replied by Sunday morning to phone and email messages left Saturday.
“Seizure is typically a last resort after substantial periods of noncompliance and/or nonresponsiveness,” Ryan Cleveland, a public affairs officer for Tax and Finance, said after the restaurants were shuttered and the locks changed. “Not to enforce the law in this regard is unfair to others in the same business who are complying with their responsibilities.”
Cleveland added, “We always work with the business to get them reopened, provided they make a good-faith effort to comply with the law.”
Swift said in his statement, “When the doors closed, it was nothing short of painful on every level.” Calling the period since “the worst two weeks of my life,” he continued, “I have been in touch with my entire staff to express my regret of this situation for them. They are second to none and I care about them more than myself.”
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His statement did not include an explicit apology to customers, including the many who expressed outrage online that the pubs had continued to sell gift cards until the day before the seizure, including during a heavily promoted Black Friday sale held Nov. 28 to 30 that offered a free $20 gift card with every $50 gift card purchased.
Swift told customers in Saturday’s statement, “The Swifty’s ship has been righted, and I can only hope that I continue to have your support as we bring it back and better than ever. You will see me more and more as I swing through the dining rooms to say hi, to check on your table and most importantly, to say thank you.”
In addition to Swifty’s, Swift owns Andrew’s Burger Shed, a Slingerlands drive-in, which closed for the season as planned at the beginning of October, and is a partner in FoCo Tacos in Delmar, which has remained open for business.
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