Advocacy

At Historic Albany Foundation we put advocacy first. A great deal of our time, both staff and board, goes to advocacy efforts - it is the undercurrent of everything we do. Our efforts have managed to keep many unique buildings in Albany standing - including Church of the Holy Innocents, Wellington Row, Hinckel Brewery & 48 Hudson among others.

We continue to be an unwavering champion of 'best practices' in preserving historical structures and of protecting endangered buildings within our community, and hope to be long into the future.

Albany loses another part of its fabric and history by the demolition of 4 ECommerce Square

Another Albany building on the National Historic Register was torn down today. 4 ECommerce Square (Ecomm) originally 328 Broadway, owned by Capitalize Albany, suffered a collapsed roof on a rear addition which brought to light additional substantial structural failures in the main building and, while an effort was made to save part of the building, it was determined that the entire building had to come down.

Albany loses a part of its fabric and history when buildings like this come down. It is all the more painful when it was preventable. We can only expect more pain in the future unless, as a city, we change how we deal with vacant buildings.

This loss can be directly tied to the practice of buying up and vacating buildings in anticipation of development that may happen, and too often, never does. This particular building was part of the convention center plan and later part of the “parking lot district” properties that is being offered for mass development.

At Historic Albany Foundation, we have watched and warned about this practice for many years. While gathering up properties may be appealing to corporate developers, it is simply not working for Albany taxpayers. In recent years we can point to Kenwood (former Doane Stuart site), “Air Albany” apartments on Upper Western Avenue, and the buildings torn down on Western Ave and Quail for an apartment complex that has not materialized. This speculative demolition, as well as the investment of tax dollars through IDA support, is hurting our communities, not helping them. We are working to make sure that the Tudors on Holland Avenue don’t meet the same fate.

There are affirmative steps the city can take to insure that Albany’s historic fabric is mended, rather that disposed of.

1. Prohibit the purposeful vacating of existing buildings in anticipation of development proposals.

2. Require that all owners of vacant buildings be required to maintain the vacant buildings so that they are stable and weather tight. This includes corporate developers, quasi-government entities, and the city itself. All buildings, including those that are city-owned, should be subject to inspection by city codes officials.

3. Require development plans to reuse historic buildings. Across the nation, successful cities maintain their historic cores by requiring development that reuses buildings or incorporates them into larger projects. Albany can do this too.

We at Historic Albany are taking this loss particularly hard because we are neighbors. We are investing time and resources to restore Albany’s oldest standing building at 48 Hudson Avenue. It is also the only active investment taking place in this designated development site. We want to make sure 48 Hudson remains a viable, usable building. We also want to be sure that the remaining buildings in the neighborhood are protected and secured.

Vacant Houses in Albany

In December of 2019 Historic Albany facilitated a roundtable discussion held in partnership with the North Albany Public Library Branch. The purpose of the discussion was to dispel some of the myths surrounding the signage and to explore some of the reasons why they seem so common in this area. We were joined by representative from the City of Albany, as well as the Albany County Land bank, and the New York State Conference of Mayors, as well as many members of the local community. A short radio show was put together by Paul Smart from the library which you can listen to below.