» CARA

Albany takes up riverfront challenge

Written November 16th, 2018 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 11 responses.

After years of talking about it, Albany is trying to follow its neighbors on the Willamette River by stimulating redevelopment of its riverfront. The first step — you guessed it — is finding a consultant.

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: Albany riverfront, CARA, City of Independence, Independence Hotel

CARA wants to buy a downtown property

Written October 21st, 2018 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 17 responses.

Albany’s urban renewal agency will try to buy a downtown property. They don’t want the public to know which one, but it sounds like the building and parking lot of the former Wells Fargo branch on First Avenue.

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: CARA, St. Francis, Wells Fargo

Albany downtown: The riverfront next?

Written October 13th, 2018 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 13 responses.

So what comes next for CARA, the central Albany urban renewal district? Mayor Sharon Konopa has an idea, and she mentioned it Saturday at the completion ceremony of the city’s two-year downtown streetscape project.

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: Albany urban renewal, CARA, riverfront, streetscape project, Water Avenue

Council votes to sell old ‘Labor Temple’

Written September 27th, 2018 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 5 responses.

Eleven years after it got involved with the former Labor Temple on Third Avenue, the Albany City Council this week ended the city’s role by voting to sell the building.

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: Albany ARA, CARA, Labor Temple, Sable Drive LLC., Scott Lepman

You might call this ‘CARA Corner’

Written August 27th, 2018 by Hasso Hering

Comments: one response.

On a stroll in downtown Albany the other evening, the buildings on this corner caught my eye. They show off the efforts of downtown owners to upgrade their buildings with the help of urban renewal.

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: Albany urban renewal, CARA, Ellsworth and Second, Novak's, Sprinkles

CARA update: Hoping for completion

Written August 15th, 2018 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 3 responses.

Albany’s downtown renewal board may now be on its way to setting priorities for completing its mission. That’s the vague but hopeful main news from Wednesday’s monthly session of the CARA advisory board.

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: ABC House, Albany canals, CARA, Labor Temple, Water Avenue

CARA and ABC: Request for siding aid

Written August 12th, 2018 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 8 responses.

CARA is being asked to give $10,000 to another downtown Albany building venture, but the push for major projects to complete and then wind up the 17-year-old urban renewal program seems to remain stalled.

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: ABC House, CARA, tax increment financing, urban renewal

A different idea for a vacant store

Written June 28th, 2018 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 20 responses.

Whether anything comes of this is uncertain, but Albany’s downtown urban development board last week heard about an idea for turning a vacant store into shared office space and a couple of meeting rooms.

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: 223 Second S.W., CARA, Matt Wallace

Let CARA think big and then quit

Written June 20th, 2018 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 18 responses.

Now that the downtown streetscape project is winding down, Albany’s urban renewal agency will have to decide what to do next. One potential idea: Put on a push to improve the neighborhood east of Lyon Street by rebuilding the streets and upgrading the houses that need it.

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: Albany urban renewal, CARA

Barbed-wire request meets resistance

Written May 23rd, 2018 by Hasso Hering

Comments: 18 responses.

Jim Ketter’s request to get rid of the barbed wire along the Albany-Santiam Canal in the Monteith Historic District, and maybe even lower the fences, has gotten nowhere so far.

Posted in: Commentary, News
Tags: Albany-Santiam Canal, barbed wire, CARA, Jim Ketter