Overall, the Pine Hills Neighborhood Association has been pleased with the continued redevelopment of the former college of Saint Rose campus in Albany — from Hudson Valley Community College’s purchase of the Massry Center for the Arts to Albany County using facilities for offices and community services.
But now the neighborhood association is turning its attention to the roughly 50 homes on the campus. Before these properties are sold, neighborhood leaders want to make sure there is a plan in place — one that prioritizes owners or landlords who will maintain and fill these homes. For more, WAMC’s Andrew Waite spoke with neighborhood association board member Carolyn Keefe.
Keefe: We would also like them to focus on community revitalization. We understand that they have to pay off the bonds that they want to make the county whole, but they also want to maybe make some money for the county, but we want the focus to be on how does this work out best for the entire community, including the county, you know, not just Pine Hills, but the entire community, and not just who's going to pay the most. That's important. I'm not going to say that's not important, but we'd like to see them develop a policy and a plan that includes community revitalization as one of the goals and one of the focuses.
For instance, there are a lot of programs that can help people. All of these buildings, the ones that can be converted back to houses, they're still going to take money to do that. Many, mostly the kitchens and the bathrooms have either been removed or the kitchens made smaller, and the bathrooms turned into dorm bathrooms. There are a few houses that would be very difficult to turn back into housing, because they were converted for offices, and we recognize that, you know, some of these houses will maybe work better as either mixed use with offices or restaurants on the first floor and apartments on the second floor, some may work better as just apartments, some may work better as, as single or two family houses.
Each house has its own unique challenges and opportunities, and some of that we hope will include housing for people who are most in need. This is a once in a generation opportunity to really address some of our housing needs. There are nearly 50 houses, maybe all of them won't become houses, but some of them will, and if the approach is such that that's being taken into consideration, we feel that that that is a more likely success story.
Waite: Yeah, so there really is actually an opportunity here to turn it into a year-round residential place, right? That Saint Rose, in some ways, never was.
Keefe: Yeah, right. Because you know, in the summer, Saint Rose was, as it is, as the rest of the neighborhood is right now, very, very quiet.
Waite: It sounds like the neighborhood association is fairly pleased with the county's partnership at this point. Wondering, how would you characterize the city's role in the redevelopment of this campus?
Keefe: Well, the city recognizes that this is a county project. I think they understand that it would be best for them not to try to push into that. I don't know the relationship between the county and the city. There are probably people having conversations at some point or another, but the reality is that any property that is owned by the county is not subject to city zoning and planning codes at this time, so but once it's out of the county's hands, then the city gets involved. At this time, I'm not sure that there is that much for the city to weigh in on until and unless something comes up.
Waite: Wondering if you could sort of put a number on your level of optimism at this point, and maybe how it's changed from a year ago, from two years ago.
Keefe: Well, from two years ago, it's incredibly high. I mean, two years ago was very concerning. Two years ago we didn't even have the authority yet, or maybe it was just getting proposed and just getting created. A little over a year ago the authority purchased the property, and so we became much more optimistic at that point, because we knew it was in public hands, and we knew that it was in fairly good hands, especially with the county support, and so we're getting, we're more and more optimistic all the time. But we understand there, there are always going to be pitfalls and things that may or may not fall through, or that may work out, or may not work out, but we're very, very pleased about the Massry Center being purchased by Hudson Valley Community College. That has not gone through, but it's coming. We're very pleased about Centennial Hall being purchased by UAlbany and becoming Great Dane apartments. We're pleased by the county's purchases of the Events and Athletic Center and Hellman Library. You know, we're pleased about a lot of that. We're not sure about the status of some of the other potential sales.
In response to the Pine Hills Neighborhood Association, Albany County Pine Hills Land Authority Board Chair Alison Walsh said in a statement that the land authority is committed to preserving and improving the vitality of the former campus and that the sales or plans to repurpose more than 10 structures amount to more than $35 million in property sales that will take care of Albany County’s debt for the initial 2025 purchase.
“Our commitment and focus remain on finding the highest and best use for each building, parcel and public space," Walsh said. "We eagerly anticipate releasing more details soon.”
