Schenectady has hired a developer who is supposed to conver the property into condos and comercial space. they say some buildings will be retained, and new buildings will be built to fit in with the exisiting buildings and take the site's history into account. or something along those lines (end paraphrase of 45 sec. news bite)
I heard this on TV today and from what Channel 6 reported, ALL present building will be torn down. In addition, the current companies such as STS Steel will be kicked out.
Not the right way to go! They should keep it as an industrial site and try to get more industrial users to come in. It has access to rail service. In fact, STS Steel wanted rail service reconnected and the city refused to do anything but tell them they would have to pay for it. Industry quite often bring in high paying jobs which in turn provides more business for local stores.
The City has a very high property tax rate and they can't keep business on State Street or Erie Blvd very long. I doubt that building stores will help them out since they can't keep what they have in place. Property taxes for home owners is just as high so building more homes is not the answer either since that area is a "brown field".
I would however be in favor of a "ALCO" museum built there as part of a plan to retain some structures including the main assembly area.
Just my 2 cents!