Hudson Valley Community College plans to bring music back to the former College of Saint Rose campus.
As the second anniversary of the Saint Rose closure approaches, the Massry family Tuesday pledged $1 million to back Hudson Valley Community College’s purchase of the center for the arts that bears the family’s name.
HVCC said in a press release that it envisions the center’s future as “a regional hub for arts, education, performance and community engagement.”
The college intends to host not only performances and exhibitions at the center, but also programs for workforce development, student engagement and community education. Facility rentals will continue.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said negotiations have been ongoing for a few months. And he said the Albany County Pine Hills Land Authority – the authority managing the campus’s redevelopment – couldn’t have asked for a better partner than HVCC and HVCC President Michael Brophy, who earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Saint Rose.
“That building is a gorgeous building – the Massrys and everyone that invested to build that – it’s a state-of-the-art facility. And, you know, to reopen it up to the community,” McCoy said. “We do have events in there. Now, we've been doing events, but now this puts someone in charge of it, to really open it up for the community.”
The deal with HVCC is part of continued mixed-use development on the 26.5-acre campus in Albany’s Pine Hills neighborhood. It comes after the University at Albany in November announced plans to purchase Centennial Hall for upperclassmen and graduate housing, and after Albany County bought several buildings to house county services.
McCoy says there is still more to come.
“We did RFPs [request for proposals] for the [Event and Athletics Center], and we got a lot of great bids back, and they're working through that. So, you're going to see a coffee shop in there. You're going to see a couple of restaurants in there, not just open Monday through Friday, but seven days a week,” McCoy said. “You'll see more basketball tournaments, cheerleading competitions going on that we're doing. So to me, I think we're going to have more use than when it was a college, because it was limited to the out, you know, from the people in the community to utilize.”
The Massry Center opened in 2008 and features a recital hall, gallery, music wing, rehearsal halls, practice rooms and classrooms. An advisory group made up of college and community members will guide HVCC’s operation of the facility.
McCoy says the community wanted the arts center to be utilized again. He and land authority board Chair Alison Walsh called the deal, which is on a 90-day clock to close, a “win-win” for the neighborhood and the city. If done, McCoy says the county will be close to recouping the money it put into bonds to back the purchase and help develop the campus.
HVCC says it will share more details once final approvals for the plan are received.