Albany redevelopment proposal moves forward quietly

ALBANY — It started as a bold idea, an outside-the-box concept that promised to bring millions of development dollars into Albany’s downtown, a region begging for renewed life but unable in recent years to sustain it.

Excitement swirled around this concept, brought to the Albany City Commission by a collective that billed itself as Albany Development Partners, and then … nothing. Commissioners voted to allow the partners to continue working on a master development agreement — at no cost to the city — and to take a look at what they came up with. There has been little to no official talk about the proposal since the partners presented the concept in September.

But officials with the city and with the group that developed “Project Artesia,” which would use utility savings as seed money to spark development that would, at least partially, focus on the aging Albany Civic Center, said Thursday that the vetting process for the proposal is moving meticulously — even cautiously — forward.

“Albany Development Partners continues to engage the city in a positive way concerning our development proposal,” Rufus Montgomery, the city of Albany’s state lobbyist who is one of the collective’s principles, said. “However, the partners have agreed to defer to the city of Albany at this point on matters related to our proposal.”

City Manager Sharon Subadan, who is taking the lead on the development proposal, was unavailable Thursday, but she did talk with Assistant City Manager Phil Roberson about the concept.

“The city of Albany and Albany Development Partners continue to work out the details of the master development agreement for the project,” Roberson said. “I feel confident that the city manager will bring a draft of that agreement to the City Commission in either January or February.

“We are in a vetting period with this proposal, discussing the terms and carefully going over the details to assure that a final agreement satisfies both sides. We’re definitely still moving forward on this proposal.”

Many speculate that recent action on another pair of high-profile downtown projects — groundbreaking for Dr. Tripp Morgan’s craft brewery and approval of the sale of the former Albany Heights building to local developer Pace Burt — has pushed Project Artesia to the backburner. Both Montgomery and Roberson, however, insist there is no less interest in the project from either party.

Albany Development Partners comprises representatives of some of the world’s premier national and international development companies — Engie, PlanLED, Chasm Architecture, Stantec Masterplanning, Field Equity, Conor Acquisitions, Project Cost Solutions, SL King and Associates, RS Development and Alston and Bird — companies that were instrumental in such high-profile development projects as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport, Boston’s Logan International Airport, lighting at the Olympic Games, and both Yankee Stadium and Safeco Field.

The partners, at Montgomery’s urging, used roughly $200,000 of their own money to look into development possibilities in Albany. They obviously liked what they saw.

“We felt the right puzzle pieces were in place here,” project principle Brandon Riddick-Seals told The Albany Herald. “The numbers don’t lie. We’ve proved our case to ourselves on paper. We had to see this through all the way to Z before we even started (working on a proposal to take to the city).

“We have the talent, the expertise, the capital to make it happen.”

Under Albany Development Partners’ plan, they would provide latest-generation, energy-saving products to eliminate utility waste in the city’s mostly aging facilities. Their research showed that the city could realize up to $2.5 million in savings under the partners’ plan.

By providing the products that would bring about the savings to the city, Albany Development Partners would utilize the savings as seed money to spur downtown development, including turning the creaky Civic Center into a modern multipurpose facility. The development would spread outward from that project.

City commissioners were intrigued enough to give Albany Development Partners the OK to move forward with its proposal. Montgomery, for one, said he thinks the city will reap far-ranging benefits from that decision.

He told The Herald shortly after the City Commission heard the group’s proposal, “I honestly believe this is a game-changing, 50-year legacy project that will literally change the landscape of Albany.”