A ‘symbol of hope’ in street’s rebirth
$6M project aims to once again turn North Swan into vibrant neighborhood
Written by Tim O'Brien
Published in the Times Union
Friday, June 27, 2008
ALBANY -- Once one of the city's most notorious streets,
North Swan Street is getting a $6 million makeover.
Seven new and three renovated buildings are part of a plan to convert an
area known for crime and derelict buildings into a neighborhood of homes
and business.
The Albany Housing Authority is creating 23 apartments and seven storefronts
that it hopes to fill with local entrepreneurs. A block party to celebrate
the Arbor Hill street's comeback is scheduled for 5 to 8 p.m. today at North
Swan and Second streets.
“I really look at this project as a symbol of hope and what can be,”
said Arlene Way, a neighbor and member of the city's Task Force on Vacant
and Abandoned Buildings.
In 2002, neighborhood opposition forced the city to drop an earlier revitalization
plan for Arbor Hill, which called for bulldozing large sections of North
Swan Street to make way for two 100-unit apartment complexes.
A year later, the city adopted the current plan. The work on North Swan
Street follows the opening in 2006 of 54 new apartments nearby as part of
a $15.6 million project by the housing authority and Norstar Development.
The latest effort is “a microcosm for what the plan is trying to achieve,”
said Sarah Reginelli, senior planner for the city. “It's a really key
corridor that for too long has been kind of a roadblock.”
The city worked with Albany County to acquire properties from its foreclosure
list, she said.
“You want to revitalize the neighborhood, but you also want to keep
the neighbors in place,” she said.
On the block between Ten Broeck Place and Second Street, temporary fences
surround the wooden frames of buildings under construction. Across the street,
brick brownstones are undergoing rejuvenation.
“Every time I turn the corner, I am so impressed and so proud,”
said Beverly Padgett, co-chair of the Arbor Hill Neighborhood Association.
“Now the families will have some place to go -- restaurants, shops
-- without going outside the neighborhood.”
Curtis Merritt has lived on the block for 45 years, seeing it go from a
thriving neighborhood to a rundown stretch of barren lots and vacant buildings.
“It's going to make a change, to get more people on Swan Street and
bring it back to life,” he said. “It's a good start. Most of these
were vacant for the last 20 to 30 years. We need something. You see how
desolate it has been for years. The children need something to see other
than empty lots.”
The dwellings should be ready for renters later this summer, and all the
work should be done by year's end, said Darren Scott, coordinator for the
housing authority.
The apartments will be available for rent to people earning up to 60 percent
of the median income in the Capital Region, $42,360 a year for a family
of four.
Scott is now looking for tenants for the storefronts, with an emphasis
on local entrepreneurs.
“We're trying to re-establish a commercial corridor with businesses
the neighborhood needs,” Scott said. “Ultimately, we want to develop
between 20 to 30 stores in that four-block corridor.”
Keith McGee plans to turn his catering business, Mogombo's International
Barbecue, into a restaurant on the street. He also is helping open a bakery,
too.
“I grew up on the corner of North Swan and First Street. When I was
a kid, everything we needed was on Swan Street,” he said. He joined
the Army in 1977. “When I came back in 1991, it was a ghost town,”
he said. “I couldn't believe it.”
Now he said he wants to launch one of the few local black-owned restaurants,
though he notes his wife is African and his co-workers are of Latin descent.
Together, he said, “we're going to create a cuisine called Albany barbecue.”
The authority is working with the Albany Center for Economic Success to
create a business center for making copies, sending faxes and help with
accounting and payroll. The district attorney’s office will also have an
outreach office at 155 Clinton Ave., at the corner of Clinton Avenue and
North Swan.
The city is also considering what to do with a park and vacant properties
across from St. Joseph’s School, Reginelli said. It could be expanded or
turned into parking for new businesses.
“The drug trade kind of closed our community down,” Padgett said.
“This has been a long time coming. We're going back to the way it used
to be.”
Reprinted with permission from the Times Union.