The Troy Industrial Development Agency Board met Friday and approved three projects for the "Hedley District."
According to the developer, plans for the waterfront redevelopment project north of downtown Troy, known as the Hedley District, "will create a vibrant economic community of businesses, shops, entertainment, lodging, residences, and recreation all at the gateway of the City of Troy."
In 2006, First Columbia of Latham commissioned a Hedley Waterfront Redevelopment Plan to redevelop roughly 25 city blocks surrounding its Hedley Park Place and Flanigan Square properties. That vision has evolved into a $100 million dollar "Hedley District."
Steven Strichman is executive director of the Troy Industrial Development Agency. "Currently two buildings, the Hedley Building and the Flanagan Building, which, the Hedley Building has a thousand employees in it right now, I'm not sure of the exact number in the Flanigan building, but these are immediately north of the Green Island bridge and downtown, and it's really the northward expansion of our successful development so that we're moving up now into the north central neighborhood in Troy, which really needs some additional investment and better connection to downtown."
Plans call for a ninth floor on the Hedley Building along River Street. The factory built in 1917 once housed the Cluett Peabody shirt manufacturing company. The project is expected to cost $3.2 million. First Columbia President & CEO Kevin Bette was not available for comment, but lauded the project in a press release: "There's a hundred mile view looking down the Hudson River all the way to the Catskill Mountains, with a great vantage of both the Troy and Albany downtowns."
The second project is The Marriott courtyard. "That is a 124-room hotel right off the entranceway from the Collar City bridge into Troy. And the final project is the Flanagan Building just north of there, and that is basically renovations inside to retain 450 employees there. These are just a portion of what is seen for the area in the long term, which includes development across the street, an eventual parking garage. There's a large number of spaces here that will see future development once these projects are completed and moving forward."
Strichman says over the long run the city will benefit from increased property tax on the developed land, along with hotel visitors pumping dollars into local businesses, which will boost sales tax revenues.
First Columbia has not laid out a specific timetable for the projects.
