The former Saint John's Catholic Church, a historic and badly deteriorated building on Green Street, is now officially going to be rescued from its slow slide toward demolition. County Executive Dan McCoy, Local Developer and UAlbany grad Patrick Chiou, and representatives from 4th Family and the African American Cultural Center announced in a press conference yesterday morning that St. John's is going to be rehabbed into 22 new apartments.
This is particularly exciting news for local historic architecture fans because of what a potent symbol St. John's has been of decay in Albany: it's been vacant for 40 years, the giant holes in the roof are visible from 787, and the Historic Albany Foundation recently put it on its "2019 Dirty Dozen" list of endangered historic resources. Fixing up the church should be a nice morale booster not just to the neighborhood, but for the city as a whole. I'll try to update as I learn more about the project.