ALBANY - A roof collapse at an Albany County-owned building on Elk Street has threatened dreams of a $10 million redevelopment and proposed historic district in the Sheridan Hollow neighborhood. The cave-in caused enough damage that the city will have to raze several adjacent privately owned vacant buildings.
Developer Kostandin "Dino" Kacani was set to start work on renovations in several buildings on the block where the 201 Elk St. building's roof fell in on Monday. Kacani said last July that the project's plans included a grocery market, workforce development space, a communal commercial kitchen, storage space and also stalls for local vendors to sell their wares.
Over the summer he gave a tour to neighbors, getting their thoughts on his plans for the multi-use facility in buildings that had been vacant for well over a decade. Kacani could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
"I was one of the players in the residential end of things in Park South ... that converted Park South from 10 years ago, the worst place to be, to a superb place to be today," Kacani said last year. "This would be that big thing that makes that big push ... to do the same thing over here, to rebirth this neighborhood all over again."
Kacani was involved in the redevelopment of the Park South neighborhood and had Sheridan Hollow in his sights as the next place in the city to help renovate.
"Someone's got to do it. When we sort of finished with Park South, this has been our second focal neighborhood," he said last summer.
Earlier: Redevelopment of Albany Freihofer building proposed
The demolition cost for 201 Elk St. is $112,000, which will be billed to the county. Much of the demolition had to be done by hand to avoid damaging an adjoining house. County spokeswoman Mary Rozack said she did not immediately know what the county used the building for.
Three buildings will be at least partially demolished and were bid out at $362,000, city of Albany Building Director Rick LaJoy said. Lajoy said the demolition on the county-owned building started on Tuesday and the rest of the work in the area may continue in to Saturday.
The city is going to try to save part of the buildings to help the Kacani keep his development dreams for the neighborhood alive, LaJoy said. But the final decision will be based on public safety.
"We just don't know how likely that will be," he said. "Our intent is to try and save any of the facades."
Kacani bought three buildings and a garage on Elk and Spruce streets in 2017 from Topos Mondial, a bakery machinery sales and consulting company, for $300,000. The land previously belonged the Freihofer Bakery Company, including a cake plant.
Kacani's remarks last summer also included a dark joke that may have been truer than he hoped. "If I was just an investor, this would be the place I should run away from, because it's nothing but a money pit," Kacani said then.
A 2017 environmental assessment of the former Freihofer's building found that a roof collapsed in part of one building, and there was two feet of standing water in one of the building's basements. The assessment also found potentially lead-based chipped paint on the walls, and other possible contaminants within the facility.
The collapse at 201 Elk St., also may have ended any hope of a budding historic district in the area that Kacani would have needed to complete his project.
Several community groups, including the Affordable Housing Partnership, were working to get the state to recognize the area as the Elk Street-Spruce Street Commercial Historic District.
In October 2019 letter, the state office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation said the area, "appears to represent a cohesive and contiguous commercial area that would appear to constitute a historic district."
The buildings at 201 Elk and 240 Spruce were two of the key structures that would have helped qualify the area as a historic district, said Kim Alvarez, a preservation consultant hired to work on the district. One is already torn down and LaJoy said he didn't expect to be able to save 240 Spruce St.
That district would have helped Kacani qualify for two key tax credits, the New Market Tax Credit and the Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit.
"It's a pretty huge part of the financial aspect for a project of this size," she said. "These would make a very substantial investment in a very depressed neighborhood feasible."
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