ALBANY — A proposal to redevelop a forlorn section of downtown Albany with a minor league soccer stadium as its centerpiece will not be going forward.
Jeff Buell, one of the region’s largest real estate developers, said Tuesday that revised plans to redevelop the 8-acre site around the city’s Greyhound bus station would no longer include a stadium as the anchor for a district that would also include housing and retail spaces.
The deadline for submitting revised proposals to Capitalize Albany Corporation, the city’s public-private development arm, for projects seeking funding from the state’s multimillion-dollar Championing Albany’s Potential initiative was Monday. Buell said the new proposal, which hews to the city’s already-existing street grid, “hits on every single point that the state and Capitalize Albany were looking for.”
The Albany Business Review first reported the news.
The state’s $200 million investment in the city includes $40 million specifically allocated for Liberty Park, a section of the city’s downtown also known as the “Parking Lot District.”
The proposal had been discussed and promoted for years before Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office and Empire State Development released a guiding document for the plan in February. It contained many glossy renderings of a reimagined city, though its vision for Liberty Park did not include a stadium.
Buell said the investment group supporting the project, United Sports Development Partners, continued to back the construction plan despite the stadium no longer being part of the proposal. Buell said the new proposal would replace the stadium with a 3-acre park that would be large enough for summer concerts.
He said the development group had backed non-stadium focused projects in the past and that support “starts in the billions, not the millions.”
The revised proposal does not change the number of housing units Buell says he intends to build. He said 700 units would be built during the first phase of any construction, with over 1,000 units built in any subsequent phases.
Buell said he still wants to build a soccer stadium and that the region would support a team. “The Capital Region has a million people here and a soccer stadium will work here,” he said. “We are in talks with other municipalities and believe strongly in the potential of the region to support the idea.”
Buell declined to say which municipal leaders he had spoken with about the possibility.
In a statement Tuesday night, Capitalize Albany President Ashley Mohl thanked developers for their submissions and said the corporation “anticipates being positioned to make a selection within the next few months, targeting a decision in the third quarter of this year.”