TROY — Two unrelated construction projects that would add a combined 117 apartments downtown are set to go before the Troy Planning Commission.
One effort would add four floors to the two-story building at 1776 Sixth Ave., which once served as a temporary City Hall. A new five-story building would rise next to the YWCA of the Capital Region on First Street between Congress and State streets.
Both projects are set to go before the Planning Commission when it meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
First Columbia bought 1776 Sixth Ave. from Judge Development in December 2021. Judge had leased the former Verizon Building to the city after it moved out of the longtime City Hall at 1 Monument Square. That 1.1-acre site was abandoned and cleared to make way for a waterfront development that, more than a decade later, is still in the planning stage. The city later moved its headquarters from Sixth Avenue to its current fifth-floor rental space in the Hedley Building at 433 River St.
“Our project includes the renovation of the existing building and the construction of four floors above the existing roof to create 64 graduate student housing units with 183 bedrooms,” according to First Columbia’s plan.
The proposal also notes: “The existing building was originally approved for and designed as a four-story cast-in-place concrete structure, though only two floors and a partial basement were constructed.” The former telephone company building was erected in the 1970s.
Hoboken Brownstone Co., which plans to build at the 1 Monument Square site, is on the commission’s agenda to have the approval of its project of apartments and commercial space extended.
The YWCA of the Greater Capital Region’s proposal for a five-story building has been off and on the commission’s agenda for the last several months.
The YWCA wants to…
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