New Dorms on Harriman State Office Campus Land?

[MRSGDG]

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=846834

[Clickclack]

We should get some of this land to ease any space constraints on campus. Seems that some people are angry that UA is chipping away, I would ask them if they are aware of how large of an economic engine UA is.

[Michigan_Dane]

Great news. UAlbany is really cramped. We need to expand onto Harriman. That campus is going no where anyway. This is just the opportunity we needed to advocate for the push.

 

For those that talk about tax rolls, they should remember if it weren't for Albany Nano, there wouldn't be AMD or all the other companies that are there. Heck, Dell was started by University of Texas student Michael Dell. Univerisities are good for business if done right.

 

I approve!

[Michigan_Dane]

Even if this turns out well for the university and we can expand onto Harriman campus, this crank will find other things to complain about. Seems he's the stereo typical old malcontent. "Get off my grass you young punks" He complains about the university affecting tax rolls yet he's a government employee. Pot, meet kettle.

 

Nut job's blog

[danefan]

These folks have a legit complaint when it comes to runoff.

Does it suck to live within 100 feet of student housing? Lets not fool ourselves....I wouldn't want to live there.

 

Go to most college towns - most, if not all, of the private residences right near campus are rented out to students. Its amazing to me that these neighborhoods right around campus haven't all turned to that.

 

From a pure financial perspective these people can make loot in rental income and afford to live in different Albany or Guilderland neighborhood essentially for free. But they probably do have emotional ties to their homes and thus, they'll fight the inevitable tooth and nail full of emotion without any logic.

 

With that being said - they also fail to realize what their town would look like if UA wasn't what it is today.

[UAalum72]

Emotional ties? Sokal's only lived there seven years. Didn't he look beyond his own street when checking out the neighborhood? Reminds me of people who buy a house next to a pig or chicken farm and then complain about the smell or roosters crowing.

 

The four streets in his org. all deadend at the Harriman Campus road. Calling the acreage 'natural' is a bit of a stretch. I used to take noontime walks thru there from the Harriman, it's scrubby second-generation growth, some junk tossed, and evidence of being used for late-night parties and rendezvous, not necessarily by college students.

[Michigan_Dane]

UAlbany didn't just pop out of nowhere. The uptown campus has been here since the 1960s. Has this guy been living in this house for the past 50 years? No. This malcontent moved here 7 years ago. His complaints are the quivilent of the guy who buys a house near an airport and then complains about the planes landing near by.

 

Don't move there you idiot!

 

To satify this guy, UAlbany shouldn't build on its own land? He's grasping at straws. I'm surprised he's not claiming that building the student dorms will lead to more Al-Qaida attacks.

[Clickclack]

How can you take this guy seriously...he say....“On the plus side, the university will be allowed to take steps to enhance their position as a world-leading educational institution,” Sokal said. “There will be, for the duration of the project, some activity on Wall Street issuing bonds in order to fund the project, and there’ll be some construction jobs as the project is being done, but that’s about it for positives.”

 

So taking steps to enhance the universities position as a world-leading educational institution is just about it for the positives?

[Michigan_Dane]

UAlbany, the alumni, the Albany Foundation or someone should be buying up those homes when they hit the market. They should turn around and rent them out until we own them all. At that point, tear them down and donate the land to the university. Problem solved.

[danefan]

UAlbany, the alumni, the Albany Foundation or someone should be buying up those homes when they hit the market. They should turn around and rent them out until we own them all. At that point, tear them down and donate the land to the university. Problem solved.

 

 

That's exactly what St. Rose did. People were complaining so they just started buying up the houses. They offered to buy mine when I lived down there, but I held out and got more on the market when I moved.

 

Thats part of the power that the University Centers need to get. Right now I don't even think the University could do that if they wanted to because of the inability to independently contract.

[uofalbany]

http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2009/09/28/daily22.html

 

Nothing really new but...

 

"One of Davidson’s priorities is to revive plans for the Harriman campus. The 330-acre site, near the University at Albany’s nanotechnology campus, has been targeted for development for most of this decade, with little action. “Everybody has been waiting for that to get traction.... ” "

 

Who's EVERYBODY?

 

"The Harriman campus houses roughly 7,000 state workers. For years, state officials have talked of developing the site into a high-tech office park with retail stores and residential units."

 

Retail stores? Please no.

 

What buildings would stay, what buildings would go?

Would the state workers stay on campus or would they be relocated?

 

How great would it be for the state to turn the campus over or at least

the western half of the campus to the University!

I wonder what kind of interest Philip and maybe even Zimpher have in this campus.

 

 

http://www.harrimancampus.com/

[UAalum72]

Under Pataki's original plan, most of the buildings except for #12, the Dept. of Labor, which is on federally owned land; #9, the Tax Dept. Audit bureau, and one or two others within the ring would be demolished and the workers dispersed thru the region. A couple have been emptied, but the latest plan was that most of the rest would be staying.

 

There have been several concepts over the last ten years, commercial, business, retail, residential, but none have attracted any interest from developers.

 

The University taking over Harriman was the plan 40 years ago, but the Empire State Plaza was never built with enough office space to take the Harriman workers downtown.

[danefan]

Getting a significant piece of the Harriman campus will solve a lot of problems for UA and the surrounding community.

 

Plus it won't cost the state anything. Get all undergrad students uptown and out Alumni, which could be graduate housing only.

 

Too bad it will never happen. Its too logical.

[UAalum72]

Editorial today summarizes the history of development plans at the Harriman Campus

 

With no vision, Harriman lags

[UAalum72]

Well, another new concept for development. No mention of the University in this story (other than it's nearby).

 

State plan's new look