Last month, on Thursday January 16th, there was a town hall meeting to discuss the future of the Saint Rose Campus. This meeting was open to the public and hosted by councilman Owusu Anane and Councilwoman Ginnie Farrell, representing Albany City Wards 10 and 13 respectively. What followed was an outpour of public opinion and inquiries.
The Albany County Pine Hills Land Authority successfully bid $35 million on the purchasing of 71 out of the 72 buildings, and intends to turn the campus into a space that contributes to the community. The only building not being purchased is the President’s House. The meeting sought to include community input into the future of the properties. While there are no final plans in development surrounding the future of these buildings, many organizations are interested, including Albany City School District. By winning this bidding war, the Pine Hills Accossionation can control what happens to the properties, and therefore block any nefarious motives by organizations like the corporations that were bidding on the properties. One of the ideas presented was that Albany County has proposed a 1 million dollar budget to convert the campus into affordable housing.
At the forefront of the council-members’ mind is that they know they will need community buy-in for the project to be successful, because of that, they intend to keep in contact with the community through ways like but not limited to more town hall meetings. As they are working towards the next steps they are listening to the voices of the community, and are in constant contact with the land authority. They mentioned maybe having to make zone changes, and they expect this whole process to take several months.
Councilman Owusu Anane spoke about the importance of keeping the buildings in the hands of the Pine Hills community, “This is the power our neighborhood has.” The city recognizes that this property and all it has been for the neighborhood has been the pride and joy for the community and they continue to watch it carefully. They mentioned that they are working with the Albany county legislation for any legislation that may be needed. Councilwoman Ginnie Farrell thanked everyone for showing up to support the community and have their voices heard by saying, “This is honestly the strength of our neighborhood.” They spoke about how the strategy they had when entering the bid race was really great because they bid on the whole property. Some other potential buyers only wanted to purchase sections or specific buildings, but they also did not have the best intentions.
Advance Albany County Alliance CEO Kevin O’Connor was a guest speaker, and ended up speaking for a majority of the time as he was there to help answer specific questions surrounding the plans for the properties. In response to tension surrounding the bankruptcy of Saint Rose itself, he made sure to explain that it was not Saint Roses fault that they had to close down as, “30% of these tuition-dependent colleges will no longer be,” further saying this trend is not expected to change or get better for a quite a while.
O’Conner went further to say this is one of the biggest bankruptcy real estate cases they have seen in over twenty years. As of now, the property still belongs to Saint Rose but the city expects to finalize the purchase by early March. The Pine Hills Association is the organization spearheading this process and they have been having weekly meetings with the college concerning the uses, maintenance, and security of the campus property. They continue the process of trying to hire consultants to hold things like public hearings to help decide the use of the buildings. O’Conner said, “This is an investment by Albany county.” On the concern of safety it was addressed that, “Empty buildings deteriorate faster than filled buildings.” Therefore, the more people who fill the campus, the safer it will be. In the meanwhile though Albany police and fire are constantly working to continue to make the property safe.
The goal is to get these bonds issued by March first, and they will not be open to the general public, they will be marketed to a group of banks. It was stated that it may take up to three years to get the properties back, and they do not know if it will be turned around quickly. The goal for the bonds they hope to obtain would be that they be able to operate the campus for up to three years.
On everyone’s mind, and on the mind of the people spearheading this process is that the community and county have a longstanding interest to have Saint Rose redeveloped smartly, consistently, and beneficially for the community. O’Conner mentioned that if anyone has any ideas for the property they should send them to him. The city recognizes that reacting with haste is important, but they do not want to make any mistakes that will haunt them. Saint Rose did not leave all of the buildings in shambles, some of the properties are in phenomenal shape.
O’Conner discussed the concern of not knowing what impact one building being potentially sold to outside parties would have on future operations of other buildings, but that the uses would have to be complementary, which is important to them, with every outcome. All of the meetings are live streamed, posted, and recorded. They can all be found on the Alliance website. A fact to be kept in mind through this process is that the authority has to pay back everything they borrowed, and that the security of the bonds rests on the county and its people. They entered a debt service agreement with Albany county, that they have to pay back.
One of the most popular concerns of the meeting was people concerned about the yellow and white houses. Their future is currently mostly unknown, just like the rest of the property. They would like to turn it into local home ownership, specifically housing for working families, maybe turning them into two family homes. They would screen the people buying these houses, but a cautionary note shared was that the houses are not built as homes, they were built as student houses. Many of the audience disagreed, arguing that the houses were created as homes and they were renovated into student housing, some audience members even going as far to say that Saint Rose destroyed the houses. They can not allow flipping, which would be the main purpose of the screenings. O’Conner claimed these houses do not have adequate kitchens and other spaces. He made sure to clarify that that does not mean they can not get there, it will just take money.
One concerned constituent raised the concern of tax increase to help pay for the project but O’Conner said that he does not see taxes going up to pay for 35 million dollar bond, that the county has a tremendous surplus, and there is no chance that the county will charge more taxes. When asked about their priorities to do the project right, O’Conner stated, “The right way is the way a great amount will support.” When asked if there was a way these buildings would continue to work as a whole, O’Conner stated that they have no idea as of now, as they redevelop, they’ll have to address this concern further.
