The newly opened plaza street: Looking east along Water Avenue from Ferry Street on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025.
Friday should have been a red-letter day in Albany. The western four blocks of Water Avenue on the city’s riverfront were open again after being closed since April so the street could be transformed.
The former industrial street has been turned into a plaza street, called that because it is designed to be temporarily closed for events such as markets. I observed the completion of this final part of the Albany Waterfront Project by taking the bike to the scene:
As for the lack of any official recognition of the completion of the $22 million Waterfront Project, maybe I just missed it.
Or maybe the city will wait to mark the completion until the last detail is finished too.
That would be putting handrails the concrete staircase on the Dave Clark Path. As of Friday, the steps looked finished but the barricade remained. (hh)
One unfinished element of the Waterfront Project: Stairs down to the Dave Clark Riverfront Path.
The City of “WB”? Wilkes-Barre, Pa., maybe? Or West Bountiful, Utah? West Bengal, India?
As someone, other than me, commented on your story of a couple of days ago on this same subject, this street is a big waste of taxpayer’s money. It will be used once a week for about 5 concerts in the summer at Monteith Park and used one day a week by Farmer’s Market during the months they are in session. Pretty damned expensive for two events…23 million dollars of taxpayer’s money. Oh, according to the city, it was 22 million plus dollars. Pardon me. And, of course if the Eugene developer puts in a high-rise luxury hotel and apartments on our city-owned parking lots, he will love the new street…along with the city’s main developer buddy, Lepman. I wonder if Lepman’s warehouse on this plaza street still has broken windows and is about to fall down. Hasso, you always aim your camera so as not to focus on Lepman’s warehouse.
Also, we taxpayers will be paying a surcharge on our PP&L bills for at least two years for putting part of the electrical infrastructure underground.
That sums it all up. I hope we have heard enough about this subject for a while.
No, the Lepman building was repainted and looks ok.
Thanks, Hasso. I don’t have any reason to go to the “Plaza” street. (I prefer to call it the “pink” brick road.) So, I didn’t know Lepman had painted his old building. Did he replace the broken windows? Someone at CARA must be feeling the criticism about their stupid pink brick road and got after Lepman about his building. But, it is still a dilapidated old building. It will be torn down if he gets a permit to build a hotel, so someone had to “convince” him to paint it, I’m sure. After all, it is the first building you see when you turn on “pink brick road” off Washington Street.
I got a kick out of your saying the building looks “ok.” That is faint praise coming from you, as you have an extensive vocabulary.
Alot of questions to be answered for sure. Your work never ends!!!!!! Thank you Hasso.
Where is the handrail on these stairs? Looks awfully steep!!
YES~! Pretty Nice :) I have been enjoying my walks about town. The Water St. area is one of my favorites. Perhaps we need to get togather for “The Grand Opening” sooner and not be waitin too long. Winter’s right anound the corner. Thanks ever-so much H-H, Stan Ham.
EVERYONE IS RUNNING FOR THE HILLS….COST 22 MILLION….ENJOY ALL OF ALBANY…..JUST DON’T TELL ANYONE HOW MUCH IT COST..OH MY…..LAUGH OR CRY,,,,IT’S UP TO YOU..
Forgot something!! It came to me why the “City” is taking half of the $1 million left in the CARA fund to bolster their “starter” business grants for new downtown businesses. Downtown is not a huge success! Not in terms of scads of thriving businesses like CARA and the city predicted. The failure and turnover of businesses is high. It’s beginning to look shabby in some areas, too. On Second Street, a sign for an Antique Shop is splitting in two. It is plywood, I think. Also, I notice when I’m stopped for the traffic light on Second (staring at the big orange Pawn Shop sign and giggling to myself at the advertising for the sale of firearms right across from a cute bakery?) that the awning on the Antique Mall building has quite a bit of rust on it. Just sayin’…
A fancy, expensive street for not much on the street itself. I dont see where the usage makes the price worth it. The downtown caters to a certain demographic, and seems to be going downhill in some aspects. But yea, an overpriced new street is just what we needed
I checked the street out and it looks great!
I’m so excited!!!! The finished waterfront plaza street looks charming and will be a lovely area to have our Saturday Markets and I’m sure other activities! Our little downtown is lovely and we have many visitors who enjoy the history and architecture of Albany and I’m proud to be here to brag about it! Thank you for the report. Oh! I agree that the WB must be for West Bengal.
Maybe this is a case of “build it and they will come”. Having a nice, clean, safe area will attract other businesses.