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Tri-State

State aims to sell Albany’s Kiernan Plaza

Albany Nanotech purchased historic building for $3M in 2013, envisioning a tech hub

A photo illustration of Kiernan Plaza at 575 Broadway in Albany (Library of Congress, iStock)
A photo illustration of Kiernan Plaza at 575 Broadway in Albany (Library of Congress, iStock)

Kiernan Plaza in downtown Albany is in need of a new conductor as the state looks to sell the former train station.

Albany Nanotech, which is overseen by the state-run development agency NY CREATES, is aiming to sell the historic building it purchased for $3 million in 2013. No asking price for the property has been set, according to the Times Union.

“With Kiernan Plaza’s prime downtown location, [the state] believes the site can be better utilized by another owner and serve as an asset to future redevelopment of the Albany waterfront,” Jason Conwall, a spokesperson for NY CREATES, told the Times Union.

When the property was acquired, the state said IBM would move a lab into the space that would serve as a testing site for smart-city technologies to be utilized in downtown Albany. But IBM never moved in, according to the publication.

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Instead, tenants have included credit union SEFCU and civil engineering firm CHA, non-tech companies that supported Albany Nanotech’s mission. Other tenants include the law firm West Law and the state-run Hudson River-Black River Regulating District.

Alain Kaloyeros, then a physics professor at SUNY Albany, created Albany Nanotech to bring a semiconductor manufacturing research campus near the university. It attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in public funding, and the success of the semiconductor hub led Albany Nanotech to acquire more properties across upstate New York, including Kiernan Plaza.

Kaloyeros is no longer affiliated with Albany Nanotech after his 2018 conviction on federal wire fraud and conspiracy charges for his involvement in a bid-rigging scandal involving major donors to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in 2018, and his conviction was upheld in September following an appeal.

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[Times Union] — Holden Walter-Warner

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