ADICA dreams big on downtown development plan

ALBANY — For City Attorney Nathan Davis, the choice put before the Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority Board Wednesday afternoon was a simple one.

“The question you face is, do you want to spend over $300,000 for a dream?” Davis said after the board was asked to consider approval of a pre-development planning and consulting agreement with Shandon Development Properties of Charlotte, N.C., to devise a master plan for some $49 million in downtown development. “That’s what this boils down to.”

Moments later the board voted unanimously to approve the agreement, which could dramatically change the face of downtown if the plan comes to fruition.

“I dream big,” board member Thelma Johnson said before the vote.

The agreement would require ADICA to ultimately expend $337,000 in funding for pre-development planning and consulting of 115.7 acres of land in downtown Albany, chiefly along the Flint River.

“I believe in this project,” Shandon’s Patrick Plettner told the board. “I’ve been working on it for the last four years, and in that time I’ve made 49 trips to Albany. I wouldn’t be driving down here if I didn’t think this development was possible.

“I’m not here tonight to promise you anything. My job, if you sign this agreement, is to plan, promote and tee this up for the private sector.”

Plettner said he’d built a local team to work with Shandon on the project, including Mary Carter, Tod Lanier, Orlando Rambo and Ben Barrow. Rambo spoke in favor of the project.

“We have a historic opportunity here,” he said. “To balk at more than $49 million in development for $300,00o would be, I believe, short-sighted.”

Plettner said officials with the downtown Hilton Garden Inn had already committed to bringing another hotel to the downtown area as part of a convention center, which the developer said was the impetus for Shandon’s interest in the downtown property.

“I talked with Rashelle Beasley at the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and she said they are losing opportunities every year because there is no convention center available in the city,” Plettner said.

He said the master plan that would be developed includes eight specific target areas: a sports complex being developed by the city possibly in the former First Tee property behind the Albany Civic Center, the Civic Center itself and its adjacent parking pads, the 100 block South (of West Broad Avenue), the convention center, which would incorporate the former Holman Mule Barn, the 100 block North (of West Broad), riverfront retail (along Front Street), the historic Harlem District and land along the riverfront that would be used as an entertainment venue.

“I fell in love with that riverfront; that’s what brought me here,” Plettner said.

Davis warned that there were no guarantees, no matter how promising the project appeared.

“I have two or three schematics in my office (of past failed projects) that y’all bought before, and they’re worth nothing,” he said.

But several board members said they thought the return would be worth the risk.

“I hear people say all the time ‘downtown will never be what it was,’” David Prisant said. “I don’t want it to be what it was. I just don’t think this is the crap-shoot some people are saying.”

Developer Sam Shugart said the fact that the three primary landowners in the project area — Bob Brooks, John Wurst and Al Corrierre — were willing to take the risk along with ADICA made it a more attractive opportunity.

“You have two of the three landowners involved who live right here in Albany, love Albany and want to see this succeed,” Shugart said. “I think you’re looking at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Among the prospects Plettner mentioned during his presentation were development of a “Dave and Buster’s-like” family establishments called Pins and Strikes, a pharmacy, a housing complex — designed with students in mind — and “mom-and-pop” tenants to occupy nine storefronts along Front Street.