The project formerly known as Independent Station in Independence looked like this on Friday, March 4, 2022.
As a longtime reader, you may recognize this photo. Taken Friday, it is just like one you may have seen here before, on March 30, 2018. But now there seems to be new hope that the building will be finished and the picture will improve.
What you’re looking at is the unfinished concrete skeleton, at 203 Monmouth St. in Independence, of what was billed as the world’s greenest building, powered by biodiesel, when construction started in 2004. It would be called Independence Station and would house apartments above retail space on the ground floor.
It didn’t work out, as you can see. The last time any construction was done was in 2009. When I went by on Friday, the only change I saw from four years ago was that a portable toilet has been added to the site, presumably for the use of a construction crew.
As it turns out, a developer named Aaron Young bought the property a year ago, in March 2021. And on Oct. 6 last year, the Independence Historic Preservation Commission approved his design for finishing the structure. The site is in the town’s historic district, and the commission unanimously granted the applicant, Young Development Group LLC, a “certificate of historic appropriateness.”
The plans call for adding a fourth floor and for constructing the building in such a way that, despite its size, it will appear smaller to people on the ground. There will be 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, and 28 apartments on the upper floors.
The project also has a new name: “Station 203”
In November, the city of Independence’s newsletter reported the historic commission’s action of the previous month. All the developer needed to start construction, the item said, was a building permit.
Independence is only 30 minutes from Albany, and it is worth a visit because the town has done an impressive job redeveloping its riverfront with a park, a big hotel and a huge complex of condos and apartments. This is after having turned its main drag downtown into a thriving place several years ago.
I don’t get to Independence often. But the next time I do, I’m hoping to see progress toward something that looks like the rendering below. It was part of the material the preservation board was shown when it approved Station 203. (hh)
We have a daughter who lives in Monmouth and are in Independence quite often. We have watched the progress? of this building since it was first started and, I believe, some proposals between the stoppage of construction and now.
The rendition is an attractive proposal and I hope Mr. Young is successful with the project.
If he is awaiting a permit it is hoped that one will be issued in a timely manner and not stalled for petty reasons.
Would they consider condos to purchase at a reasonable price? I would be interested!
Again great Pic Hasso Hering. Must be the blue sky. Not much has changed in two + yrs.
Rotting away.