A year-long planning effort to attract investment and funding opportunities to the city of Rensselaer has begun.
Mayor Mike Stammel says the city on the Hudson River is centrally located, with convenient access by car or train to everything: Albany, the state capital, and New York City, Boston, Montreal, Syracuse and Buffalo — along with the Adirondacks, Catskills and Berkshires.
The Republican says the new initiative goes hand-in-hand with the "mini-boom" the city is experiencing. "We have a number of projects pending both through the planning department and the IDA," Stammel said. "You know, for years we've been for last two years, we've been working with BBL trying to redevelop the old Barnett's mill, which is along the riverfront there. That project is going through some environmental reviews right now and is going to be ready for construction, starting in the spring. The old St. John's High School has been sold to a private developer and is being turned into condominiums as well. And we're looking at the old Albany Felt Mill that was over here as well. We have a person who owns that property and is waiting just for the interest rates to come down a little bit and wants to redevelop that into some apartments as well because there's been a demand for apartments lately."
Stammel says the project would create tax credit opportunities and is poised to guide the development of a number of city areas. "It's a process that the city is going through to update its master planning here in the city of Rensselaer, how to utilize that space that we have left in the city of Rensselaer and try to get business to stay here in the city of Rensselaer as well as to attract new businesses," said Stammel.
City Planning Director Thomas Hulihan says funding comes from an $85,000 grant from the State Department of State Brownfield Opportunity Area Program.
"It would create grant opportunities and prioritization on several grants that New York state puts out," Hulihan said. "And typically properties in a BOA implementation project area see property values increase between five and 15%. We are looking forward to input from the community throughout the month of January, by completing the survey, we've got a steering committee of 17 members, local residences and businesses in the community as well as the school district, the Industrial Development Authority, local youth, and our city historian, as well as our consultants from LaBella. And there's also going to be other opportunities for people to participate. There'll be focus groups and other public meetings that will be held throughout the year."
A visioning survey for community members will remain open through January. The survey is available on the project website and at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6WTLDHJ. The city will post updates at Rensselaer-planning-dot-com.
