Albany’s urban renewal board faces this question: Whether to reopen its general program of loans and grants for remodeling and other projects, which it had closed down in favor of just three big items.
We rarely lift our eyes to notice what’s overhead. Try it sometimes, and you might be amazed that the bewildering arrangements of electrical and communications lines actually still seem to do the job.
Gerding Builders expects to follow through on its plan to turn the former Wells Fargo Bank branch in downtown Albany into a commercial and residential complex. That was the gist of part of Wednesday’s session of the downtown renewal advisory board.
An Albany developer has dropped his plan to renovate the former St. Francis Hotel and adjacent Rhodes Block, but the idea of the restoration itself may not yet be completely dead.
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.
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.
A new plan to save the St. Francis and then some
Scott Lepman, the Albany real estate investor and developer who has tackled several big restoration projects, has come up with an even bigger one. His organization will save the former St. Francis Hotel downtown and also restore the former city hall building if the urban renewal district, CARA, will help him lower the financial risk.
Tags: CARA, historic hotels, old buidlings, old city hall., Scott Lepman, St. Francis, urban renewal