Negotiations are under way to demolish Albany’s Central Warehouse.
The nearly century-old former cold storage facility, regarded as an eyesore, has sat abandoned since the 1990s. It changed hands several times over the years. Attempts to repurpose or rehabilitate it have fallen flat.
In the most recent attempt, after a protracted legal battle with a New York City developer, Albany County transferred ownership of the hulking 11-story building to Redburn and Columbia Development in December 2022. New York state awarded $9.75 million to kickstart redevelopment of the asbestos-laden structure.
Developer Jeff Buell pledged to eventually deliver a mixed-use residential-commercial space and a rooftop restaurant. In the end Buell's ideas proved too costly. “I genuinely did believe we could fix [it] and I pride myself on being able to say I was wrong, and it turns out I was wrong," he said.
The county bought Central Warehouse in January for $50,000.
With the cost of demolition now projected at $14 million, higher than New York and Albany County has previously budgeted for, County Executive Dan McCoy says the state is contributing additional funding. The Advance Albany County Alliance says it has asked Gramercy Group and LiRo-Hill to take the 400,000-square foot structure down. McCoy is standing by.
"I don't want to have to spend more money than we have to, but this eyesore has been there over 100 years. It needs to go. We've been talking about this since the 90s. It's an eyesore in downtown Albany, and we got to figure it out. And I'm not, you're not going to get me on your radio show to say that I hope it doesn't go above that. I hope it doesn't. But, you know, we're going to deal with it as we go forward, but I'm determined to, you know, get this last building in downtown Albany taken down," said McCoy.
In 2022 Amtrak service on the Northeast Corridor was impacted by chunks of concrete falling from the structure. The railroad had to suspend passenger rail service, and Mayor Kathy Sheehan declared a state of emergency. McCoy says Amtrak has a seat at the demolition planning table, and that the railroad has an existing relationship with Gramercy Group.
McCoy pointed out that he has other priorities including re-purposing the former College of Saint Rose campus in Albany’s Pine Hills neighborhood. And as planning for taking the warehouse down continues, preservationists are clamoring to resurrect the nearby Lock 1, the original entrance to the Erie Canal from the Hudson River, which McCoy says could one day be a tourist attraction. Modern Press is presently located on the site.
"I tried to buy that company, it's a print company," said McCoy. "I think the valuation of the building was like, and don't hold me to this, because I'm going off from memory, like $600,000 we offered them like nine, well above it would the value is, help them find another building that was a better operation for him. And he wanted, like, I think $1.4, $1.6 million."
McCoy says negotiations stalled. Contacted by WAMC, owner Patrick Ryan declined to comment.
"But the lock's under there," McCoy said, "So we just commissioned and gave them $85,000 to start looking to plan to take that lock. And I don't want to take this guy's property by domain, but I might have to look at it, because it's holding us up, you know, and get that property open, that canal that's been closed for over 100 years, a destination with that property. And then you can reimagine, we control the property when this is done."
The Alliance says it has no further comment beyond a press release issued Thursday that says in part "evaluation of bidders for the Central Warehouse demolition was a rigorous process, conducted by an independent review committee," and "cost was not the sole issue; rather, the evaluation was based on full responsiveness to the RFP including issues such as community engagement, safety and the accommodation of a live rail line bordering the building in question." WAMC has reached out to Gramercy Group and LiRo-Hill for comment.
