Items tagged with 'Harriman State Office Campus'
Amazon Town
You might recall that episode back in October when the Capital Region joined the mad rush to be colonized by Amazon -- there was pitching, there was laughing, and Albany experienced one of its regular cycles of self hatred. (Here are the 20 metros that made the cut as finalists.)
Well, now the Capital Region's full bid is out thanks to Jon Campbell and the crew at the USA Today Network. They FOILed the bids for the Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany metros from Empire State Development and posted them online. Here's the Capital Region bid.
On initial scan, it's pretty much what you'd expect from the summary released last year. But there were a few things that caught our eye...
Public meeting to take comments about UAlbany's big, new ETEC building
There's a public meeting Wednesday evening to take questions and input about the new Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Complex (ETEC) building that UAlbany is planning to construct on the southwest corner of the Harriman State Office Campus. The meeting is from 6-7 pm in SEFCU Arena (Hall of Fame Room), with free parking in the arena lot.
The purpose of the public meeting is for an environmental review of the project, and questions and comments from the public will be logged for the record. We hear that UAlbany officials will also be there to informally answer questions about the project as best they can.
As mentioned, this is a big project -- a four-story, 243,000 square feet buiding with a price tag of $184 million. (You might remember its announcement this past February.)
Blurbage from the project's (really long) supplemental environment impact statement doc for the project:
The office building and the air conditioner
Random Friday afternoon thing: While walking Otto at the Harriman State Office Campus, we've noticed that there's a tiny, single air conditioner that hangs from a window of a giant Department of Taxation and Finance office building. It's row after row of midcentury office building windows -- and then this one window-unit air conditioner.
And it's made us think: There's gotta be a story behind that air conditioner. (And if there isn't... someone should make one up...)
So, yeah, Friday afternoon.
A few more bits about the potential sale of a chunk of the Harriman State Office Campus
As you might have heard, the state has put a large chunk of the Harriman State Office Campus up for sale. It could be a big deal for the city of Albany because it holds the potential of adding taxable land (which the city's budget could use) and transforming a large site.
The state held a webcast about the sale Wednesday. It's online if you'd like to watch it, and only about 15 minutes. But we watched it so you wouldn't have to.
Here are a handful of interesting bits we took from it...
A new complex for UAlbany, and a few thoughts about the future of the Harriman State Office Campus
UAlbany will be building a new complex on a chunk of the Harriman State Office Campus for the new College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity, the Cuomo admin formally announced today.
That's a rendering of the complex above. Here's a larger version, along with an aerial view of the complex's position on the Harriman campus.
The development -- called the "Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Complex" or ETEC -- will be on 12 acres in the southwest corner of the Harriman campus. (Yep, that's the portion right next UAlbany's uptown campus.) It'll house both the new college and New York State Mesonet, the statewide weather monitoring system that's currently being rolled out.
Press release blurbage:
The $184 million project will be financed through $92 million in previously appropriated State capital funds grants as well as $92 million in previously appropriated Campus-funds. It is anticipated that 1,600 construction jobs will be created by the project. When fully occupied, the complex will become an active hub of research, instruction and business development, with some 1,000 daily occupants including faculty, researchers, industry partners, and students. Site planning is underway and construction is expected to begin in 2017, with completion targeted for 2020.
About the Harriman campus and the city of Albany
The Harriman campus is ongoing issue not just for the state, but for the city of Albany -- because it's enormous, roughly 330 acres within the city limits. And it's tax exempt, a fact that Albany leaders routinely bring up when banging the drum for more state aid.
The state would like to sell you a used car
The state's new website for selling surplus on eBay -- NYS Store -- officially launched today.
The first big sale (if that's the word) is a lot of 450 vehicles up for auction. The vehicles are currently at the Harriman State Office Campus and will be available for inspection a few days over this weekend and next week. The minimum bid is $500. The auction ends April 13.
Most of the vehicles are Chevys and Fords, the kind that just sort of say "government vehicle." But browsing the stock this morning we noticed there are a handful of Honda and Toyota hybrids, also.
The state has been selling old/surplus stuff on eBay for years. It looks like the new website is mostly a better "storefront" for those auctions.
photo: NYS OGS
Severed dog head found along Route 85
Weird/disturbing story of the day: Albany police say a severed dog head found along Route 85 near the Harriman State Office Campus Monday morning. From the press release:
The Animal Control Officer located a pit bull's head that had been severed. It was on the roadway just before the Washington Avenue overpass. A search of the immediate area initially did not locate the body of the dog. ...
It initially could not be determined whether it's had been intentionally severed or if it was struck by a car.
A search was conducted late this morning and the dog's body was found in between the eastbound and westbound lanes in between the cement supports of the Washington Avenue overpass.
The owner of the dog, who lives in Albany, was located today and she told police the dog was acting strange this past Friday and it got loose from her and took off. She had put out flyers and posters for her dog and called the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society to report her dog missing.
APD spokesman Jimmy Miller told the TU today that the DEC pathologist who examined the dog called the case "very unusual."
Full press release after the jump.
That building going up on the State Campus along Washington Ave
Someone asked us the other day (in person, yes, very old fashioned) if we knew what was up with that building going up on the edge of the Harriman State Office Campus along Washington Ave in Albany. Our answer was along the lines of "It's a state lab something or other..."
Yeah, so we needed to get more details. And here they are, with photos even.
... said KGB about Drawing: What's something that brought you joy this year?