Plans to construct a full-service grocery store on a 2-acre parcel between Albany and State streets in Schenectady that was once home to a car sales lot are continuing to progress.
Schenectady County lawmakers are preparing to transfer ownership of 754 State St. to the Capital Region Land Bank, which will oversee the redevelopment of the property that sits on the edge of downtown and borders the Hamilton Hill and Vale neighborhoods. The property was once home to the Mohawk Auto Center, a used car lot that closed in February 2022.
The county’s Committee on Economic Development & Planning approved the transfer on Monday. The full Legislature is expected to give final passage to the plan next Tuesday.
Ray Gillen, chair of the Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority, told lawmakers that the redevelopment project is entering a “very pivotal stage.”
“Our plan is to develop housing on this site and retail, especially a full-service grocery store that would service both downtown and the Hamilton Hill and Vale neighborhoods and the rest of the community,” he said. “We’re well along the path to achieve those goals.”
Plans to redevelop the property have been in the works since September 2022, when county lawmakers authorized using $10,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to secure the right to purchase the 2.13-acre parcel for a year and a half at a cost of $950,000 in order to assess the property. An additional $3 million in ARPA funding was also set aside to assist with the development of a grocery store.
The county moved forward with the purchase earlier this year.
The redevelopment effort has also been assisted by a $2.75 million Restore NY grant, which Gillen said will be used to demolish the building currently located on the property and ready the site for future development. There are also plans to use the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation Brownfield Cleanup Program, which includes additional funding opportunities.
Gillen touted past successes Metroplex and the county’s economic development team have had with redeveloping brownfield properties, including the former headquarters of the American Locomotive Co., the once abandoned property along Erie Boulevard that is now home to Mohawk Harbor.
“We’re going to do to Mohawk Auto Center on State Street what we’ve done many times before,” Gillen said. “We’re very proud of our brownfield clean-up efforts in this county.”
It’s not the only development plans moving forward in the area.
Metroplex announced last year plans to spend $550,000 to demolish seven vacant buildings along Albany Street to make room for future housing. The Albany Street properties, which had a long history of code violations, are located in close proximity to the former car dealership.
Efforts to bring an additional grocery store to the Electric City have long been a priority for lawmakers and local advocacy groups seeking to bolster access to fresh, healthy food in an area where options are limited and transportation can be hard to come by.
The city of more than 65,000 residents is home to just two grocery stores: Market 32 on Eastern Parkway and Price Rite Marketplace in Crosstown Plaza, near the Rotterdam border. An Aldi grocery store located in the Woodlawn neighborhood relocated to the Five Corners intersection in Rotterdam.
Last year, ShopRite announced plans to shutter its five Capital Region locations, including its Niskayuna storefront, prompting concerns by some community leaders, who lamented the loss of another grocery store locally. It has since been announced that Price Chopper/Market 32 purchased the sites, with plans to reopen the stores.
Bringing a grocery store to the former Mohawk Auto site is not the only effort to address food access locally.
The Electric City Community Grocery — formerly known as the Electric City Food Co-Op — has been developing plans to build a storefront location along lower Erie Boulevard, an area that offers easy access to the Interstate 890 exchange and close proximity to a transit hub just a few blocks away on lower State Street.
Schenectady County has also pledged $3 million in ARPA funding for that project, and the Schenectady City Council allocated $1 million of its own ARPA funds towards the project.