DEC OK's Waterfront First Phase

Times Union: DEC weighs in on Rensselaer waterfront plan

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has approved the beginning of a massive development project planned for the Rensselaer waterfront on property where the Rensselaer City Middle and High School campus once sat overlooking the downtown Albany cityscape.

Harbor vs. Seaweed

The harbor may have to be modified or dropped from the design of the de Laet's Landing project, so as not to disturb the underwater vegetation. The article below is currently hidden behind a pay wall, but a few paragraphs are visible.

The Business Review: Seaweed stymies U.W. Marx plans for Rensselaer harbor project

Underwater vegetation—seaweed, essentially—is forcing big changes to a proposed $250 million to $300 million riverfront marina, residential and office development with views of the downtown Albany skyline.

In the meantime, you can read the State Environmental Quality Review Findings Statement. Go to the Rensselaer Riverfront Redevelopment Google Group and click on "DeLaet's Landing SEQR Findings_FINAL.PDF" (excerpt below).

Findings Statement - Rensselaer Waterfront Redevelopment Project
...
V. Project Impacts
...
4. Impacts to Flora and Fauna: The proposed action proposes reshaping and engineering of Hudson River shoreline adjacent to the project site. Habitat areas for sturgeon, mussels and other aquatic species have been indicated in the Albany waterfront area. Additionally, there are submerged aquatic vegetation beds with potential ecological significance that would be negatively impacted by reconfiguration and engineering the shoreline. DEC Environmental Resource maps indicated that the project is located within the vicinity of one or more rare animals. A site-specific habitat study, however, confirmed that no rare or endangered animal species were present.

Here's the U.W. Marx site for the project. Learn about the State Environmental Quality Review here.

UPDATE:

Times-Union: De Laet's Landing delayed by weed

State wants waterfront project reworked to protect 'water celery'

Greenway Grant for Riverfront Park

EmpireStateNews.net: New sites, grants for Hudson River Greenway Water Trail

The Hudson River Valley Greenway announced the designation of two sites and the award of three grants to expand and improve the Hudson River Greenway Water Trail at a recent Greenway Board meeting.

Webcast - meeting of the Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities Council. Choose the June 10, 2009 meeting, and click the heading "Greenway Water Trail Grants" to skip to the 75 min. mark:

"While we may be limited in terms of funding, we never miss an opportunity to make an impact... The next one is a re-scope of a grant to the City of Rensselaer. This grant will allow them to, well, will help them defray the cost of constructing a public bathroom along the waterfront; certainly an important amenity for any water trail site."

Greenway Water Trail Grants

Town of Coeymans, Albany County - $11,750
Town of Halfmoon, Saratoga County - $35,000
Re-scope-Rensselaer Riverfront Park - $6,475
Discretionary Award, OPRHP Peebles Island State Park:
Emergency public access dock repair - $1,584

The Hudson River Greenway Water Trail

On Earth Day 2001, the Greenway was awarded $1 million to establish a Hudson River Greenway Water Trail (HRGWT) stretching from the Adirondack Park in the Town of Hadley, Saratoga County, to Battery Park in Manhattan. The Hudson River Greenway Water Trail allows those with small boats to intimately explore the Hudson River’s natural and cultural wonders... While open to all boaters, the water trail is being designed and built for ... kayakers and canoeists.

The Great Champlain-Hudson Paddle 2009

The Great Champlain-Hudson Paddle is a fifteen day, 195 mile kayaking and camping trip from Fort Edward to Manhattan along ... the historic Hudson River.... The event is scheduled for August 3 to August 17, 2009.

DeLaet's Public Hearing

REMINDER: The City of Rensselaer Planning Commission is holding a public hearing on the proposed DeLaet's Landing waterfront project on Tuesday, Feb. 24th at 7pm, at the Boys & Girls Club of So. Rensselaer County [544 Broadway].

Unfortunately, I have a class, so I can't attend. If you go, please e-mail me or post a comment if you learn anything interesting.

Latest on de Laets Landing

Times-Union: Tenant, then groundbreaking
Developer of de Laet's Landing sets condition before moving ahead

RENSSELAER — The construction firm planning a massive commercial, residential and retail complex for the Hudson River waterfront intends to break ground on the much-anticipated project by early summer.

The City of Rensselaer Planning Commission is holding a public hearing on the proposed DeLaet's Landing development on Tuesday, Feb. 24th at 7pm, at the Boys & Girls Club of So. Rensselaer County [544 Broadway].


MORE: Comments on The Buzz: Business News

It's good to see some residents speaking up on behalf of the city.

Marina and Waterfront Still On Track

Here's a nice long article from the Independent (Indienews.com) describing the waterfront marina project:

Rensselaer projects still on

E. GREENBUSH--In recent months many businesses have slashed jobs and developers have scraped multi-million dollar projects, due to the global economic crisis. But the proposed East Greenbush Marina and the Rensselaer Waterfront Development projects are still on track, for now.

UPDATE: Troy Record: Marina, waterfront projects on track

Rensselaer Iron Works

Yesterday the New York Department of State announced $23.3M in grants from the environmental protection fund, for 88 waterfront revitalization projects in NYS. No projects were included for Rensselaer in this round of funding, but the City of Troy received money to support their planned Hudson River promenade and park at the former Rensselaer Iron Works site at the end of Madison St.

The New York Times archives has this article detailing a shut-down of the Albany and Rensselaer Iron Works, almost 125 years ago. This history of labor and industry from SUNY Albany describes the lives of the iron workers in Troy. These Wikipedia articles on Erastus Corning and John F. Winslow include some history of the Iron Works as well.

You can walk along Madison Street circa late summer 2007 using Google Maps Street View, but there isn't an exact address to link you there. This image (c2008 Google) is from Google Satellite view.

Waterfront Site

I took these photos last Sunday (Oct. 19th), and but didn't have a chance to post them (click them to enlarge). This is the riverfront site from the viaduct bridge on Broadway near the Amtrak station. What a gorgeous view!

The demolition appears to be mostly completed now. Here is a Business Record article from May 19, discussing the start of demolition, and another Business Record article from May 23 discussing the future project tenants.

The developer, U.W. Marx, shows the vision of the Rensselaer Waterfront Development on their web site.

Development Sites

On Oct. 3, the Albany Business Review reported that regional commercial development projects including the Rensselaer waterfront's de Laet's Landing and the East Greenbush Village at Tempel Farm are still on track. That story went to press before the past weeks' economic volatility, but it does sound like progress is still being made.

Here's the link to the Business Review story, but the full text is currently available to subscribers only (it will probably be freely available after a little time has passed - try one of the bigger libraries to find a copy of the paper in the meantime): Developers still on track with large commercial projects, but stalled economy and credit-crunch fears loom large.

The photos show each site on Oct. 10 (I hope I got the correct waterfront site). Check out the big redtailed hawk sitting on the tree in the top right corner. Click the photo to see a bigger version.

Update: Here's an Oct. 10 article from the Indenews.com: Despite Crisis, Projects Go Ahead.