East Greenbush sees major apartment proposal for Columbia Turnpike

East Greenbush sees major apartment proposal for Columbia Turnpike
Kenneth C. Crowe II


EAST GREENBUSH – The town Planning Board next week will look at a planned development district for a proposed 300-unit apartment complex, the largest to be proposed in the town in more than a decade, that some consider important to the revitalization of Columbia Turnpike.

The 300 units of luxury apartments and 12,000 square feet of commercial space are proposed by 580 Columbia Turnpike LLC. The 35-acre site is where the Weathervane Restaurant stood for decades before it became derelict and was torn down in June 2016.

“It brings people to a really important part of the turnpike,” said Adam Yagelski, the town director of planning and development.

Studies of the Columbia Turnpike corridor, also known as Routes 9 and 20, have said that residential development needs to occur to provide a customer base for new businesses along the four-lane highway.

“This is development we’ve been looking for. It has potential to make a real difference on Columbia Turnpike,” Supervisor Jack Conway said.

The Weathervane, which also was the site of a Howard Johnson’s, had been decaying for nearly a decade when Conway took office in 2016. Getting the deteriorating restaurant demolished was an early goal of his administration.

The last major residential development of this scale was in 2006-2007 when Forest Pointe was built with about 224 units.

The Planning Board will hold a public hearing at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday Aug. 22 at Town Hall, 225 Columbia Turnpike on the PDD application that 580 Columbia Turnpike submitted. The PDD application envisions the site being developed in four phases. That could take up to five years to complete.

Should the Planning Board eventually approve the PDD for the site, it would go to the Town Board for final adoption.

The plans first became public last fall, leading residents of Tiernan Avenue, Woodland Park, Sherwood Park and Gilligan Road to meet to discuss the impact of the proposed PDD on their neighborhoods. There are concerns about traffic and the impact of the development on the surrounding water and sewer infrastructure.

The proposal before the town calls for buffering to be done to screen the apartments from the nearby neighborhoods.

East of the 580 Columbia Turnpike site, Turnpike Redevelopment Group of East Greenbush LLC is investing $15.5 million to convert the former Kmart store at 164 Columbia Turnpike into a training facility for the state. Construction is now under way.

TimesUnion


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