ADICA board votes to move forward with Pine and Front development

ALBANY — Members of the Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority board decided Wednesday that a month of stalling, which had reportedly already cost them one significant downtown tenant, was enough as they voted to move forward with funding improvements on two strategic properties that are part of the city’s Front Street Market retail development.

Board member Omar Salaam, who’d already headed an effort to delay action on the development by a month, attempted to do so again at Wednesday’s ADICA meeting, claiming a “second opinion” should have been sought rather than utilizing cost estimates provided by downtown architect David Maschke.

But fellow board member Charles Ochie, a professor at Albany State University, said there was no reason for micromanagement by the board and offered a motion to approve funding for work on city-owned 104 Pine Ave. and 127 Front St. properties that are being sought by retailers.

A third property, at 101 Pine, was to have been part of the initial clustered developments of the 10 properties along Pine and Front, but a prospective tenant reportedly pulled out when Salaam led a movement to table the proposed vote on improvement funding at the ADICA board’s April meeting.

Downtown Manager Latoya Cutts, who heads the ADICA and Downtown Development Authority boards, told the ADICA board at that April meeting that she’d asked Maschke to prepare cost estimates on property improvements because of “the quality of work he’s provided for us in the past.” She also said Maschke typically provides “a thorough cost estimate, not one that requires a number of change orders.”

Salaam said a “second opinion” should have been sought, even though, by law, professional services contracts, such as the one offered to Maschke, do not require bids. ADICA has approved a number of such contracts without bids during the time Salaam has been a part of the board, but this is the first time he has objected to the practice.

“As director, I have the authority to enter into a professional services contract with a vendor,” Cutts told Salaam.

Ochie, meanwhile, said Cutts was doing her job when she sought a contract with Maschke to provide cost estimates, construction drawings and construction management for the projects.

“We need to move forward,” Ochie said. “Most of us here have jobs, and it’s not realistic to expect us to be here to work on every little detail of a project like this. That’s what (Cutts) is paid to do. I trust her to make a decision that’s in the best interest of the citizens of this community.”

When Salaam continued to object, board chairman Jimmy Lindsey diplomatically cut him off.

“Ms. Cutts gave us all a month to ask questions about this project, and I assumed everyone who had questions had asked them,” Lindsey said. “I respectfully appreciate your concerns, but I have a motion and a second to move forward with this process. I think trying to draw this out longer is the wrong thing to do.”

The board voted 4-1, with Salaam dissenting, to approve the funding for the improvements on the two properties. Estimates of construction costs, drawings and management came to $127,900. Less than $11,000 of that total would go to Maschke.

Alex Rolfe, a recent addition to the board, told Salaam, “Every month we delay, we’re losing money.”

On Thursday morning, Maschke declined to comment on Salaam’s objections.

“Look, I made a New Year’s resolution this year to overcome obstacles with the intent of helping downtown Albany and improving living conditions in the city,” Maschke said.