Capitalize Albany Advances Liberty Park Redevelopment with RFP Respondent Selection

September 1, 2026

The City of Albany’s economic development organization, Capitalize Albany Corporation, has selected a master plan proposal as the next step in advancing its Liberty Park RFP process. On Tuesday, Capitalize Albany’s Liberty Park Committee voted to select a proposal by Columbia Development and Galesi Group. 

Our team looks forward to working with the community, City, State and local economic development partners. We will continue to bring you more information through our website, newsletter and social media channels.

Building on the unprecedented momentum generated by Governor Kathy Hochul’s Championing Albany’s Potential (CAP) Initiative, the Corporation released an addendum to master development respondents to its Liberty Park Acquisition and Redevelopment RFP in February. The addendum, which was prepared in consultation with Empire State Development (ESD), allowed respondents to refine their proposed projects for Liberty Park to better align with the ESD Downtown Albany Strategy and the updated site development objectives identified by Capitalize Albany Corporation.

Informed by significant public engagement, the Downtown Albany Strategy identified the redevelopment of Liberty Park as a key opportunity for large-scale housing, public space and neighborhood destinations. Crucial to unlocking the full potential of Liberty Park and downtown Albany, up to $40 million in ESD funding was dedicated under the broader CAP Initiative to advance the Liberty Park district.

“This milestone reflects nearly a decade of strategic site assembly, planning, preparation, a broadly-marketed RFP, and a rigorous evaluation and selection process,” said Capitalize Albany Corporation president Ashley Mohl. “Such a complex but essential undertaking would not have been possible without the support of Governor Hochul, Empire State Development, the Albany Convention Center Authority, City of Albany Industrial Development Agency, and the vision and commitment of Capitalize Albany’s Board of Directors. We’re looking forward to the long-awaited transformation of this site into a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood and commercial district. Our board and staff thanks all respondents for their thoughtful submissions.”

Announced by Governor Kathy Hochul along with major CAP Initiative milestone achievements the master plan redevelopment concept transforms the Liberty Park site into a new downtown neighborhood and commercial district. The transformational proposal envisions three phases consisting of new office space, housing, programmable creative space, experiential retail and parking, and unified by converting an existing street into a pedestrian walkway connected to community green space. Under the proposal, the entire Liberty Park site would be redeveloped, alongside the historic Van Ostrande-Radliff House. The selected development team will work with Capitalize Albany and New York State over the coming months to finalize the terms of the project.

As the local economic development organization, Capitalize Albany Corporation stepped forward following release of ESD’s 2017 feasibility study to provide the possibility of site redevelopment because of its track-record and mission – to facilitate strategic economic development work throughout the City of Albany.

Capitalize Albany worked for nearly a decade leading assemblage and redevelopment of the Liberty Park site. After Capitalize Albany’s acquisition of the former Adirondack Trailways building and the 2, 3 and 4 E-Comm Square buildings in 2019, several years of litigation and condemnation proceedings stalled redevelopment progress. The Liberty Park Site redevelopment acquisition phase concluded in 2023, with the additional purchase of 34 Hamilton Street in 2024 further expanding opportunity for the site.

Following the Liberty Park Site redevelopment acquisition phase, Capitalize Albany engaged Stantec Real Estate Strategies and worked through forming and executing a development and marketing strategy for the site, engaged CBRE Upstate NY for brokerage services, and in 2025 launched its RFP and began soliciting potential development teams.