The biggest residential development on Albany’s Willamette riverfront is rapidly nearing completion. I see the progress at Edgewater Village every time I ride past on the Dave Clark Path, which happens several times a week.
The biggest residential development on Albany’s Willamette riverfront is rapidly nearing completion. I see the progress at Edgewater Village every time I ride past on the Dave Clark Path, which happens several times a week.
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.
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.
As Albany embarks on redesigning its Willamette riverfront, an evening bike ride along Water Avenue last week reminded me that a significant element of redevelopment had taken place nearly 10 years ago.
CARA, Albany’s downtown urban renewal district, was created in 2001 and originally was scheduled to last until 2027. Now it’s expected to expire in 2033.
The former St. Francis Hotel, a downtown landmark for more than a century, was mentioned twice at last week’s meeting of the Albany Revitalization Agency. That’s the city council when it acts as the agency governing CARA, the Central Albany Revitalization Area.
Can the Wells Fargo project be saved?
The outlook for the redevelopment of the city-owned former Wells Fargo branch downtown looks uncertain now, but the city council has given the would-be developer three more months to see if the project is financially feasible.
Tags: CARA, Gerding, Wells Fargo