Final piece comes down
WEST ALBANY – The last remaining structure of Tobin’s First Prize Center came down last week, finally clearing the way for a new use for one of the Capital District’s largest eyesores.
“Taking down this building was a Herculean task,” said Bill Hoblock, President of Richbell Capital. “The last piece was the stack.”
Richbell needed approval from the State Department of Environmental Conservation to remove it, but demolishing the entire 500,000-square-foot structure proved to be a massive undertaking.
“This was essentially a refrigerator,” Hoblock said.
The walls, made of five feet of reinforced concrete, took months to deconstruct. Removing the smokestack presented another challenge. Richbell had three options: demolish it with explosives, chip out a wedge at the base, or gradually chip it down from the top.
The latter option was chosen, and demolition began on Wednesday.
“This was the safest method and the least intrusive to the neighborhood,” Hoblock said.
The process involved using a large crane to chip away at the concrete stack, slowly working it down to the ground.
The Project
The redevelopment of the site is now in the final stage of site plan review by a special planning board established for the project.
Richbell, based in Saratoga, developed the plan in 2015 and purchased the site from a limited liability company, Exchange Street Associates, a year later. That Saratoga-based company had acquired it from the Albany County Industrial Development Agency, which had bought it from the federal government in 1984 for $150,000 with high hopes of redevelopment.
Nearly ten years later, the project has reached the last stage of site plan review.
Under a little-used state law, because the project straddles the City of Albany and the Town of Colonie, a joint five-member Planning Board was formed, consisting of two members from Colonie, two from Albany, and one mutually agreed-upon appointment. A joint Zoning Board of Appeals was also created following the same structure, should any zoning or land-use regulations require appeal.
The site’s location has drawn interest over the years from potential developers, including proposals for a Walmart, a Cabela’s outdoor sports supply warehouse, a casino, a hotel, a nursing home, and a Lowe’s. However, those projects never moved beyond the early discussion stages, in part due to the high cost of demolition.
Now that the site has been cleared, Hoblock anticipates final approval in the coming months.
“Because everything has to go through both municipalities, the process takes longer. Usually, it runs smoothly, but there are so many complexities here,” he said. “I give the municipalities involved a lot of credit.”
“This is a really good example of regionalism, and it is not easy to do,” Hoblock said.
