Tobin's First Prize Center -- the sign is all that's left.

By Jessica Pasko

If you've along Everett Road in Albany, you've seen that huge old sign for the First Prize Center (it's near I-90). And you've probably wondered, "What the heck is the First Prize Center?"

Did they make trophies? Blue ribbons? Those big checks for the Publishers Clearinghouse give-away?

Here's something you probably wouldn't have guessed: hot dogs.

Yes, hot dogs.

Apparently Tobin's First Prize hot dogs -- aka NY hots -- are kind of prized among nostalgic foodies. And until the early 80s they were actually made in Albany and Rochester. The former Tobin Packing Company, a 34-acre property on Exchange Street just off Exit 5 of I-90, once employed some 600 people and produced tons of hot dogs and sausages. A field behind the packing company housed animals until they were ready to be slaughtered and made into meat products.

Tobin's First Prize first came to be in 1924 and was called Albany Packing Company at that time. One of the owners was also president of the Rochester Packing Plant, and later the entire venture became known as Tobin packing. The owners ended up holding five separate companies and were at one time the 7th largest meat packing company in the U.S.

Sadly, since 1981, the big sign and towering stone monolith has been all that's left of Tobin's. That's when the company and the brand were sold to John Morell, which still markets Tobin's brand dogs.

The land itself, known as the First Prize center and complex, has been been more or less on the market for several years. A plan last year by a retail group to attract a big-box store to the location later fell through due, ostensibly, to lack of community support.

There was also talk of a collaboration with the Albany Nanotech, but that also seems to have come to a standstill. As of now, the site is partially torn up for some indeterminate construction project -- but there's still a handful of businesses at the location, including a lighting design company and an art dealer.

