Downtown Plan and Corning Preserve Master Plan
City of Albany and Capitalize Albany Corporation, Albany, NY
Encouraging public-private partnerships to enliven a capital city’s downtown
Wanting to attract new generations of residents, employees, and businesses to the downtown—while strengthening and reinvigorating the built environment—the City of Albany and the Capitalize Albany Corporation initiated this market-driven process, which includes development of two plans: a revitalization plan for the downtown district and a master plan for its adjacent waterfront park. The plans will establish the park as a downtown amenity, with strategies for overcoming a surface-level highway, which has historically hindered waterfront connections. The process has utilized a series of unique public engagement strategies, which have built early support for the process.
Major themes central to this planning process include:
- Celebrating downtown’s quality of life by highlighting its existing amenities
- Connecting downtown by reinforcing its walkable street network and establishing new connections across I-787 to the Corning Preserve waterfront park
- Empowering stakeholders to invest in downtown by facilitating initiatives built on public-private partnerships and produce shared benefits for all involved
