The city of Independence wanted a riverside hotel and now it’s getting one. To learn how the town of 10,000 did it, I took the 20-minute drive there from Albany on Monday.
The city of Independence wanted a riverside hotel and now it’s getting one. To learn how the town of 10,000 did it, I took the 20-minute drive there from Albany on Monday.
Imagine the plight of a streetscape designer who’s supposed to place a few benches on the newly rebuilt sidewalks of Albany’s downtown. How to position this street furniture so it is inviting and does future bench sitters some good?
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.
Unless you live there, you probably avoid Albany’s Fifth Avenue east of Lyon Street because of of its rough pavement. Camera in hand, I took a ride there Friday to illustrate just how bumpy the surface is.
George Diamond, the developer of Edgewater Village on the Albany riverfront, would like to step up the pace of construction, but on Wednesday the downtown urban renewal board (CARA) had a lot of questions, qualms and quibbles and seemed reluctant to approve a financing change that he needs to get going.
On the local front, the Albany Carousel is asking for urban renewal money for the third and final time. The request for $339,500 will go before the advisory board of the Central Albany Revitalization Area when it meets at 5:15 Wednesday afternoon at City Hall.
Albany’s downtown urban renewal agency wants people to stop snickering and complaining about spending money on frou-frou-sounding projects like a “promenade” or an “esplanade.” So it has changed their names.
When Albany voters decide on a bond for new police and fire stations in November, they can be sure that approval of the bond will not benefit the downtown urban renewal district, CARA. Why would it, you might reasonably ask, even though we’ve covered this subject before. Well, money to repay the $20.3 million bond […]
The Oregon House today (May 28) is scheduled to vote on a sensible bill to correct an injustice dealing with property taxes and urban renewal, but it won’t do any good in Albany, at least not yet. The bill is HB 2632-A. It would remove local option levies approved by voters after January 1, 2013, […]
CARA buys former Wells Fargo branch
Last October, the Albany City Council authorized the city staff to negotiate to buy the former Wells Fargo Bank branch at First Avenue and Broadalbin Street. On Friday, the city closed on the purchase for $1.5 million.
Tags: ARA, CARA, downtown revitalization, urban renewal, Wells Fargo