Several members of the Central Albany Revitalization Area advisory board want the urban renewal agency to give financial support to restoring the former St. Francis hotel and adjacent Rhodes building. But after Wednesday’s meeting of the board, just how much the agency would pay was still unclear.
Before this Covid-scarred year of 2020 is over, let’s not forget that a big development project supported by Albany’s urban renewal program has been successfully completed.
Architect Bill Ryals’ concept of the restored St. Francis Hotel with a roof-top restaurant and diagonal parking on Ferry Street.Renovating the former St. Francis Hotel in downtown Albany would cost $10-11 million, and when it’s done it would be worth $4-5 million. This means that for the project to go ahead, the CARA urban renewal […]
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.
This boardwalk, part of Albany’s Dave Clark Path, was built to skirt a restaurant that perched on the Willamette riverbank below the Ellsworth Street Bridge. The restaurant burned down years ago, but the path still winds around where it sat.
For Albany’s downtown urban renewal program known as CARA, the focus now is on launching and completing a redevelopment of the riverfront along Water Avenue, finishing some remaining projects, and then going out of business, possibly by 2025.
The St. Francis project: Taking a look
From the fourth floor of the old St. Francis Hotel, you have a fine view of downtown Albany and beyond. You could see even farther from the roof.
Tags: CARA, downtown Albany, downtown revival, Flinn Block, Historic buildings, historic hotels, Marc Manley, St. Francis, urban renewal