Exterior of the former McDonald's and South End Grocery in Albany.
ALBANY — Thirty years ago, the future of land at the corner of South Pearl Street and Madison Avenue was among the city’s controversies.
A plan to build a McDonald’s on the vacant site then owned by the Albany Housing Authority had some lovers of the city’s history and architecture aghast. A garish little box adjacent to the Pastures, Albany’s oldest neighborhood? At a gateway to downtown? Heck no!
The quickly constructed restaurant opened late in 1994.
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Which is to say, the architecture buffs lost, as they so often do in Albany. The Historic Resources Commission approved the McDonald’s, neon lights and all, and the eatery was heralded as a new beginning for the troubled South End.
“This is really going to get something going,” said former county lawmaker Lucille McKnight, noting the concurrent arrival of a Rite Aid pharmacy a few blocks down South Pearl. “It’s going to bring back community pride.”
Added then-Mayor Jerry Jennings: “This is a great day for the South End to have two ribbon-cutting ceremonies in one day. And this is only the beginning.”
That a McDonald’s was hailed as economic development probably says something about the desperation of the times. In fairness, though, the restaurant had a pretty good run before closing in 2019, one year after Rite Aid and two years after the neighborhood lost its Stewart’s. With hindsight, those closures foreshadowed Albany’s broader ongoing struggles.
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Many of you will know that the much-celebrated South End Grocery followed the McDonald’s, the grease and salt of the fast-food restaurant replaced by an attempt to offer fresh fruits and vegetables. Alas, the grocery imploded, spectacularly. It’s a long and complicated story, and I won’t dwell on it. Let’s just say a lot of money was squandered, as was a fair amount of hope.
Meanwhile, the ugly former McDonald’s remains. What’s next?
Well, we learned last week that Albany County intends to buy the building for about $300,000. The purchase price will help satisfy mortgages that Key Bank and Broadview Federal Credit Union hold against the property, saving each from a potential headache. Why, exactly, is the county bailing out banks?
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy, noting that the property is worth significantly more than the purchase price, told me the idea is to be proactive and to prevent the property from becoming another boarded-up eyesore in a neighborhood where distressed properties are common. (Notably, there’s a vacant lot on the other side of South Pearl.)
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“We want (the property) to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem,” McCoy said Monday. “I don’t want to see that corner boarded up for a year or two. I want to fast-track this.”
Of course, there are problem properties all over the city and the county can’t buy them all. And the collapse of the South End Grocery, despite the county’s investment of taxpayer money, suggests that government involvement is not always the best solution.
McCoy, though, argues that one high-profile failure shouldn’t keep the county from trying again.
“We fail a lot at different things,” said the Democrat, first elected to his office in 2011. “But are we going to be afraid to try new things?”
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Let’s hope not. We should flood the South End and other neighborhoods with new ideas and experiments, with creativity and attention, because the status quo isn’t working. With Albany feeling like it’s at a crossroads as The College of Saint Rose prepares to close, the city needs urgency, passion, drive, direction. Other cities do, too.
In any event, the degree to which the county controls the fate of South Pearl Street is noteworthy.
The former McDonald’s, after all, sits just south of the county-owned MVP Arena. Farther down, between Rensselaer and Ferry streets, the county is looking to redevelop the complex that houses the Board of Elections. Proposals for the 4.6-acre site include housing along with, potentially, a day care center or grocery store.
McCoy said a grocery in a building that would also contain housing has also been suggested for the former McDonald’s site, as has a culinary school. The existing building, so controversial 30 years ago, will likely be torn down. Few will miss it.
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