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O\u2019Connor, who was appointed to his position by County Executive Dan McCoy, said he expects the deal to close \u201cimminently.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In total, the county has backed $40 million in bonds for the former campus, with the additional $5 million going toward maintenance and upkeep of the property.<\/p>\n
The county is already using much of the space it will purchase\u00a0under a temporary use agreement. The county executive\u2019s office space and the Albany County Sheriff\u2019s Office are among those already located on the campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Pine Hills Neighborhood Association supported the sale of the buildings on Western Avenue but not those on Madison Avenue. The county\u2019s \u201cearly expression of interest has made it nearly impossible for any other potential buyers to consider purchasing these highly marketable buildings,\u201d the group said in a statement before the vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The group had called for a \u201ca pause\u201d on the sale of the three Madison Avenue buildings.<\/p>\n
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Members of the group hoped the former library and Hearst center could have formed the basis of a larger arts complex.<\/p>\n
McCoy, in a statement heralding the purchase, said the deal \u201c(opens) the door to new opportunities for housing, innovation and public use\u201d on the old campus. Both Sheriff Craig Apple and McCoy have said they would keep the spaces in the Hearst Center \u201caccessible to the public,\u201d neighborhood association board member Carolyn Keefe told the Times Union Friday. The building once housed Saint Rose\u2019s music production program and contains sophisticated recording equipment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTheoretically, they will develop a process for that and make it so you can do that,\u201d Keefe said. \u201cI do know that at least one of the recording studios is currently in use because the county executive uses it to record his podcast.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe support temporary uses by Albany County, yet believe there would be greater value to all if these distinctive buildings were put on the market, potentially contributing to our tax base and reducing the burden on City and County residents,\u201d the\u00a0group said in their statement. \u201cThis could diversify the uses of campus buildings and contribute more to neighborhood vitality.\u201d<\/p>\n
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A spokesperson for McCoy confirmed he does use space in the building to record his show, \u201cAlbany County Direct,\u201d but said efforts to make the space available to the public were a \u201cwork in progress,\u201d and noted that much of the equipment had fallen into disrepair since the college closed last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The purchase was approved unanimously by the Land Authority\u2019s board. Among the yes votes was board member Dannielle Melendez, who also serves as president of the Pine Hills Neighborhood Association.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe respect Dannielle Melendez\u2019s role as an authority board member, which is separate and independent from her role as (Pine Hills Neighborhood Association) president, and we trust her judgment in both roles,\u201d Keefe said in a message Friday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hearst Center on the former College of Saint Rose campus, seen in July in Albany,\u00a0 is one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30394,844,610,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-71019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-alco","9":"tag-latestnews","10":"tag-local","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-new-york-state","15":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}