Capitalize Albany Corporation Assumes Control Of Liberty Park Properties
February 26, 2020
Capitalize Albany Corporation has closed on its Purchase and Sale Agreement with the Albany Convention Center Authority (ACCA), transferring roughly five acres of surplus ACCA properties surrounding Liberty Park in the heart of Albany’s downtown business district to the city’s nonprofit economic development organization.
Liberty Park is unique in the Capital Region’s core downtown as the most substantial undeveloped and underutilized site, and its revitalization is projected to have a positive transformative effect not only on downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods, but the Capital Region as a whole.
This transfer completes the steps contemplated in the December 2017 Purchase and Sale Agreement between the ACCA and Liberty Square Development, LLC, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Capitalize Albany. It follows a collaborative and intensive roughly 12 month due-diligence period during which Capitalize Albany weighed the possibility of driving reinvestment to Liberty Park based on the results of the 2017 Empire State Development (ESD)-led feasibility study and an analysis of site conditions and anticipated expenses.
Capitalize Albany now has site control of all of the ACCA surplus-property, which includes a total of 4.6 acres of underutilized surface parking lots and four vacant buildings. Of the property conveyed by ACCA, .89 acres remains under lease with a private entity. This lease has been assumed by Capitalize Albany’s subsidiary LLC. Of the total 4.6 acres, a half-acre previously leased by ACCA was purchased by Capitalize Albany last November for $3.3 million.
Capitalize Albany was successful in securing funding to support site control through an up to $15 million Upstate Revitalization Initiative award from ESD to Capitalize Albany in May 2019 for the stabilization and redevelopment of Liberty Park. This award recognized the importance of the Liberty Park project to downtown, and continued Governor Andrew Cuomo’s commitment to the revitalization of urban centers across Upstate. Capitalize Albany continues to work toward acquiring the remaining property within the Liberty Park district while taking proactive steps to ensure its successful redevelopment.
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