It will take a few years and millions of dollars, but if things happen as intended, the former St. Francis Hotel and adjacent Rhodes Building in Albany will become a downtown showplace once again.
Strong winds and rain whipped through the Willamette Valley this afternoon. And one gust caused this damage near the west end of Seventh Avenue in Albany, across from Riverside cemetery.
Before a snow shower hit on Tuesday afternoon, workers were busy in brilliant winter sunshine on an Albany sewer project just off Waverly Lake and Salem Avenue.
Every once in a while someone asks me about the unfinished reconstruction of the former Mexican restaurant at 2845 S.E. Santiam Highway. Now there’s something new to report.
Forty-some years ago, 124 Broadalbin Street in Albany was he address of The Broadway, a fashionable women’s clothing store with a little restaurant on the mezzanine. For the last 20 years it was Riley’s Bar & Grill, which closed after New Year’s, and the historic building’s future now is unknown.
The city of Albany has finally made public its plan for the old St. Francis hotel building downtown. The plan is to buy the building from the printing company that owns it, and sell it to Marc Manley, who with his wife Anni owns and restored the Flinn Block farther east on First Avenue.
In the year he has been on the Albany City Council, Alex Johnson II has rarely been as outspoken as he was Wednesday on the size of accessory dwelling units or ADUs.
St. Francis project takes a step forward
It will take a few years and millions of dollars, but if things happen as intended, the former St. Francis Hotel and adjacent Rhodes Building in Albany will become a downtown showplace once again.
Tags: Albany downtown, ARA, CARA, St. Francis and Rhodes