ADICA delays vote on Albany ‘Front Street Market’ property

ALBANY — City of Albany officials had a monkey wrench slipped into their plan to quickly move forward with renovations and alterations of three downtown properties that would have rendered the properties along Pine Avenue and Front Street “white box” ready for tenants.

Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority board member Omar Salaam insisted that the board be given more time to consider a proposal from architect David Maschke that would have allowed the city to collect bids on the redevelopment of properties at 100 and 104 Pine Ave. and at 127 Front St. Downtown Manager Latoya Cutts told the ADICA board at its meeting Tuesday that three prospective tenants “are ready to move forward” at those locations.

“This is a lot; I think we should take a closer look at this,” Salaam said after Maschke offered a projected cost on rehabbing the three properties. Maschke, who would serve as a project manager during construction, said the cost to get the properties white-box ready is expected to be around $257,000.

Cutts attempted to explain the convoluted relationship between the city, ADICA and the Downtown Development Authority in development of the property. The city has made ADICA the agency of record in utilizing bond funding to renovate the properties along Front and Pine that have been dubbed the Front Street Market. But the DDA’s purview is development of the city’s Central Business District, which means that agency would manage the properties once they are ready for tenants.

When Salaam questioned Maschke’s involvement — which Cutts said stemmed from his past work and her desire to get the “real cost” of the renovations — Salaam insisted that more time was needed to consider the proposal. Board member Michael Stewart recommended taking a week to study the proposal and calling a special meeting to vote on the matter.

“I understand that if we skip this vote today, we could lose viable prospects,” Stewart said. “But I would like to take a closer look at the proposal, too. If we do that, we could hold a special called meeting and be ready to vote right away.”

Board member Martin Carter, though, said there was no need for an additional meeting.

“Our next scheduled meeting is May 10,” he said. “If we have any questions, Ms. Cutts can answer them beforehand. Then we’ll be ready to take a vote.”

The board eventually voted to table the matter until its May 10 meeting.

Maschke’s projected costs to prepare the properties for tenants were $120,778 for the 100 Pine development, which would include the former LeVee property along Pine and two smaller properties along Front. Cost for the 104 Pine property was estimated at $55,832 and for the 127 Front Street property $61,337.

Cutts said she and staff had worked up rental figures based on Maschke’s estimates.

Asked why he’d held contingency costs on the proposed construction projects to 7 percent, Maschke explained that the condition of the properties did not lend themselves to sometimes costly change-orders.

“We fully inspected these properties, brought in contractors to look them over,” the architect said. “These are small, manageable projects, and I think we have a full understanding of the scope. I would be more comfortable with a 10 percent contingency, but our desire was to keep these projects under $100,000.

“I anticipate that (contractors) will be able to give us (bid) numbers that are solid. So I’m comfortable with the 7 percent.”

Cutts said the city anticipates making improvements on the 10 Front Street Market properties in groups. The city manager/ADICA/DDA director said proposals for improvement would be brought to the board in five separate groupings.

The city, which used funds from its Job Enhancement Fund, has already funded roof repairs and interior demolition on the properties.