Albany County Executive Dan McCoy previously said the $35 million in bonds used to purchase the former Saint Rose campus would be paid off in February. That date has changed.
Albany County is backing the $40 million in bonds the Pine Hills Land Authority used to purchase the 71 buildings on the former Saint Rose campus in March.
The $35 million in bonds was used to purchase the property, and an additional $5 million was taken out to maintain the property.
At a press conference in November, McCoy said $35 million in bonds would be paid back in full next month.
“I will stand here and tell you that will be paid off by my speech February of next year when I talk about my State of the County when we close the other ones that we will be announcing shortly, now mind you I just want to say this it takes time to close. You’re not going to close overnight but that $35 million bond we’ll make our first payment in February, will be paid literally when we make our first payment,” McCoy said.
But Nick Mazza, who was recently reappointed as chair of the Pine Hills Land Authority, said Wednesday he isn’t sure it will be paid by that time.
“February, I’m not so sure that we will have it all paid off but we’re making significant payment on it and I would expect certainly by the end of the year we would be very close to having that paid off,” Mazza said.
Mazza says the county has already paid off $6 million of the $40 million it owes in bonds. That money, he says, came from the county’s purchase of five properties on the campus last year.
The University at Albany has offered to purchase Centennial Hall for $12 million and the Henry Johnson Charter School has entered into negotiations to purchase the Albertus Hall and the Science Center, which are connected, for $6.7 million.
Mazza says those sales are not finalized but is fairly confident they will be, and would represent an additional $18.7 million that could be used to pay the bonded debt back to M&T Bank. In conjunction with the $6 million garnered from the five properties the county purchased, that would leave $15.3 million left to be paid.
On Tuesday, McCoy said announcements on more developments could come by the time he delivers his State of the County address.
“In theory I will be able to announce something at my State of the County in February, but on paper it probably won’t realistically be paid off until like, once it goes through the courts, closing and a teaser, you know cross the I’s or dot it. That’s going to take months, and I figure by the summertime before it gets through all the lawyers and everyone gets a piece of the pie,” McCoy said.
He has not yet announced an official date for his annual address, but said he expects to deliver the speech within the next few months. Last year’s speech was delivered in February.
“I’m hoping to say this is fully paid off for, meaning yes, everything if it goes through and the closing costs happen, yes this whole campus will be paid off within less than a year, but it might take till June to do all the closings,” McCoy said.
Redevelopment of the campus was open for public discussion last year as the Albany County Pine Hills Land Authority hosted three forums. These discussions, which drew large crowds, were part of the land authority’s plan to develop a formal report on how to best make use of the 26.5-acre campus in the heart of Albany. That report, compiled by several consulting firms, including Cresa, a commercial real estate agency, was released in November.
The County Legislature faced criticism for approving the County Executive's purchase of the buildings ahead of the report's release.
Cresa is taking the reins on the campus’ redevelopment, and in a Jan. 9 statement, Pine Hills Land Authority CEO Kevin O’Connor said “I have great confidence in Cresa to help us in this next phase of development: turning that plan into action.”
O’Connor was not available for a comment by airtime Wednesday.
Mazza says implementing the playbook is a primary goal of the Pine Hills Land Authority for this year.
“Moving forward in 2026 we are really excited about the implementation of that plan. While the plan is somewhat flexible, it’s a great piece of what we are trying to do,” Mazza said.
In regard to the other properties on the campus, Mazza said there has been interest from prospective purchasers but he could not specify.
“I mean almost up to a competitive situation, I can’t go into details on that because revealing that might harm the negotiations,” Mazza said.
