Repairs would generally be for costs <$2,500 using the de minimis safe harbor. 

There was also a part of that law that enacts rent control anywhere in the state, which may affect your plans.Make sure any changes you are proposing to the contract are compliant with the "new" New York State housing laws. 

Rent control measures, burdensome employment regulations, and excessive administrative requirements exemplify this.

At this point I'm trying to figure if I should try to bring in an experienced partner to de-risk this build out or scrap the plan altogether and sell. 

But ideally you don't tell us, you are just going to have agents pitch their city like @Julian De la Guardia & the sort.

I probably won’t structure my next deal this way, I would rather just own the property and have more control of the project.

And while crime isn't out of control in either suburb, it is higher than the national average and the schools are medicore at best.

query=garage#sear...If you can rent a 2 garage at $450 without spending ~$150k for a garage ADU conversion, no work/risk of the ADU conversion, the lower maintenance/capex, easier eviction, no rent control, less tenant interaction, it will not convert your SFR to rent control, etc, it seems superior to the garage ADU conversion.  

The state doesn’t have rent control laws, but landlords are prohibited from collecting more than one month’s rent for security deposits.

or perhaps a reverse build to suit where the data center operator controls the buildout and the planning etc.I've not been involved in a data center first hand but the central OH market is pretty data and warehouse heavy as far as developments go and to echo the posts here, the power requirements are wild, and the red tape to get that power to the site is often cumbersome.