A VISION STARTS LOOKING MORE LIKE
REALITY
By ANDREW BROWNSTEIN , Staff writer
Albany -- State's sale of armory paves
way for work on college-city
development
Gov. George Pataki ushered in the sale of the
New Scotland Avenue armory Tuesday,
removing the greatest obstacle to a plan
uniting four college campuses in the
surrounding neighborhood with a
multimillion-dollar center.
The state's sale of the World War I-era
armory and its 9 adjacent acres means that
construction can begin as early as next year
on a food court and 35,000-sqare-foot
bookstore on the site.
"As you look around, it's a great old building,
but it's underutilized,'' Pataki said. "There's
not much here.''
The University Heights project, the governor
said, would "stand as a common link'' for the
Albany Medical Center, Albany College of
Pharmacy, Albany College of Law and the
Sage Colleges.
The sale also sets the stage for an ambitious
three-year construction plan in the area to
include new classroom buildings, a
conference center and a 150-bed inn.
New York City philanthropist Morris "Marty''
Silverman, who footed the $2 million loan to
the University Heights Association for the
armory, has a more expansive vision for a
$200 million renovation of the neighborhood
bounded by New Scotland and Holland
avenues and Academy Road.
The terms of the loan were not disclosed.
Silverman, who also celebrated his 87th
birthday Tuesday, trumpeted the idea as a
"bridge to the 21st century.''
Jeanne Neff, president of the Sage Colleges
and chair of the UHA board of directors, said
the project is modeled after similar university
centers at Harvard and Yale, with lighted
walkways and green spaces joining the four
campuses.
"It is the model of sophisticated college-city
development,'' she said. "What it will give to
the community is a place that's alive at night.
On a summer evening, this will be the place to
come to study, eat an ice cream cone or buy
a book.''
Among the conditions of sale are that UHA
open a five-acre track and soccer field area
for occasional public use and get approval
for the armory redesign plans from the
National Register of Historic Places.
No matter what shape the interior of the
proposed student commons takes, UHA
plans to preserve the brown-brick facade of
the building that opened in 1915 as a state
troop and cavalry armory.
Though the building will require "minor''
work due to asbestos and lead paint, Neff
said the prospect was "not a deal-breaker.''
Another unresolved issue is the status of a
$148,600 lien claim filed against the state by a
Menands contractor for work done in 1997.
Joe Garcia, owner of Jo-ja Construction,
claims he wasn't properly paid for work his
firm did to bring the armory up to fire code.
Suzanne Morris, spokeswoman for the state
Office of General Services, said the lien claim
does not affect the sale because it was against
the state, not on the property itself. Lawyers
who reviewed the issue found no problem in
transferring the title of the property from the
state to UHA, she said.
Copyright 1999, Capital Newspapers
Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.