The old Oregon Electric depot, seen Feb. 3, 2026, is being remodeled. The owners previously sought CARA aid but were unsuccessful.
The Central Albany Revitalization Area or CARA will end in June 2027, but not before handing out up to $545,000 in a final program of grants.
In November, city council members sitting as CARA’s governing agency decided to split the urban renewal district’s last available funds. Half went to help pay Pacific Power’s cost of putting Water Avenue power lines under ground. The other half would be spent on a new grant program similar to what CARA offered before.
Last week, on Wednesday, the council members unanimously approved the outlines of the new program. Like previous CARA grants and loans, the new effort is intended to help owners finance improvements on their buildings.
Sophie Adams, the city’s economic development manager, listed the key points of the program:
— Total amount available: $545,000
— No maximum award amount per project
— 25% match required
— Applications available starting end of this week
—Â Applications due March 31
— Awards made in April at an ARA meeting
— Projects must fit within the goals, objectives, and project list in the original CARA Plan
Adams added: “They [council members] also requested that we hold an information session later this month, which is in the planning stages.”
Council members agreed that projects already under way could qualify for new phases of their improvement projects.
The council’s specifications seem to fit the continuing project to renovate the historic Oregon Electric Railway depot to house the Sybaris restaurant. The owners previously were rejected for CARA funding on the grounds the grant program had ended.
I asked Matt Bennett of Sybaris about applying again. “We are getting closer on the building,” he replied. “We will look into that CARA situation to see if there’s hope.”
Projects given CARA aid under the new program will have to be completed around May 2027. The following month, successful applicants will get reimbursed before CARA goes out of business.
The city established CARA in 2001 with an authorized debt and spending limit of $56 million. (You can wade through the founding documents here.) The district will cease on June 30, 2027.
CARA was largely financed with taxes on nominal increases in taxable value since its founding. After the district ends, the yearly property tax amounts allocated to CARA will instead flow to the city, county, school and other taxing districts that gave them up since 2002.
For the city of Albany, the amount withheld from city tax revenue for CARA’s benefit was nearly $1.9 million in the current fiscal year alone. If I read the Linn County assessor’s tables correctly, the end of CARA in June 2027 will mean a revenue jump in the city’s biennial budget of nearly $4 million in 2027-29. (hh).
Wow! Will all that extra revenue, the city can stop the city services fee on our water bill! Yeah, I know, that will never happen
A budget bump of $4 million? I know a Street Department that could benefit from such funding…
Glad to read that you, Hasso, have finally coughed up the truth about how much taxpayer money went toward CARA and downtown and the pink brick road (Water Street)…since 2001. That is, with the end of ill-advised CARA, the city, as you researched and reported, will get nearly $4 million increase in taxes for schools, fire, police, etc…in the 2027-29 years alone. I promised myself I would quit commenting, but an “I-told-you-so” moment was too much to pass up.
Finally coughed up the truth? How about explaining EXACTLY what you mean. What truth was Hasso hiding?
Hasso digs up a lot of “truths” the City conveniently “hides”. You should thank him. Let’s hear your stupid response.
Didn’t anyone teach you not to be a bully and call people stupid?
So, you can’t answer the question as expected. I rest my case.
Hoping a recipient of the big grant will donate it to Albany so they can pay us back. Power bills.
It is all shameful. Roads? Speed Trap Cams? Don’t forget the Flocks. Siphoning of funds? Pretend wannabe ICE folks….. What’s next?
If there was anyone in our town who were deserving of a CARA grant for restoring an historic building would be the Bennetts’ project to relocate Sybaris. Matt and Janel attended our meetings before we formed CARA in 2001, to support downtown revitalization. Yes, downtown was quite blighted back then. Matt and Janel have been so devoted to our town and have never received one dime from CARA. They work darn hard. I bet the loads of fundraisers and dinners they have donated for non-profits the past 25 years is way more than this grant. Matt and Janel wanted to purchase the old Wells Fargo building to restore it and that ended up being torn down and sold for way less dollars to Lepman. I hope Matt and Janel apply for the grant and all of the other downtown businesses and property owners should highly recommend they do. I know many folks do not like the CARA program, but that ship sailed and this is the last piece of the funds, so celebrate by giving it to the most deserving Albany business. Please support the new Sybaris and thank them for all they have done for Albany.
Not sure how they are going to bump revenue to the city by 4 million a year at the same time they still have 10s of million in debt to retire from the program.
It’s not a year, it’s a biennium.