On Wednesday, cleaning up after the demolition of the former Oberto sausage and jerky factory store on Pacific Boulevard.
It was 10 years ago, in August 2010, that the Oberto company pulled out of Albany and closed its meat snack factory and store on Pacific Boulevard at 30th Avenue. Now the former store and deli has been demolished.
I had hoped the site, part of Albany’s industrial land base and owned by Smoke Craft before Oberto bought it in the 1990s , would be returned to a manufacturing use one of these days. But that hope proved to be in vain. (I wrote about the abandoned store and vacant factory in 2014, and you can read it here.)
A few years ago the Mid-Valley YMCA bought the former store and surrounding parcels. My call to someone at the Y was not returned on Wednesday, so I don’t know the organization’s plans. The Democrat-Herald published a series of online photos of the demolition and said, in one of the cutlines, that the Y intended to put soccer fields on the land.
How soccer fits with the industrial zoning, or whether it matters, I don’t know.
The Y owns eight lots on the east side of Pacific, including the site of its main facilities at Pacific and 34th Avenue. Its main property, valued at $14 million on the tax rolls, is exempt from property taxes. But on the neighboring seven lots, it has been paying property taxes. The total tax bill for 2019 was about $12,000.
Presumably, if the Y improves the Oberto site for soccer matches, the property will come off the tax rolls. It’s part of the changing face of a town where industry fades over time and recreation takes its place. (hh)
I hope the Soccer field has some type of barrier between it and Pacific Bv
holy smokes! Is that a flat?
Changes abound. Changes for all of us…
Bummer no call back at time of posting. eek!
Of course we will need monthly, regular checks to play soccer everyday.
45’s guv should solve this. no?
I doubt it too. He is …..
worthless. dare I say LEADERLESS .
Kind of looks like it, but no, it’s not a flat.