Albany

In the midst of a revitalizing warehouse district, the old Argus Press building remains a sign of industrial decay and unrealized potential.

You may know it. The building at 1031 Broadway is a landmark marked by two prominent towers, huge windows and decorative yellow brick. Other than Nipper, it's probably the most distinctive thing in its neighborhood.

For those of you who are like me and hope to see change at the Argus, I come to you today with encouraging and discouraging news.

The encouraging: Albany County controls the dilapidated Argus, which is near Druthers Brewing Co., and is ready to put the building in private hands.

The discouraging: The county may return it to the longtime owner who failed to redevelop the building and lost it to tax foreclosure.

That owner is Menands resident Michael O'Brien Jr., who owes the county $473,101 in back taxes and fees on the property. O'Brien is apparently ready to pay off the debt, and the county is ready to hand the Argus back to him.

In fact, the County Legislature was set to vote on doing just that earlier this month when Chris Higgins, the Democrat from Albany, rose and asked a rather logical question: What in the name of Marcus Reynolds are we doing?

Reynolds?

He's the architect of the Argus. He also designed the Delaware & Hudson Railway building that's now SUNY headquarters.

Actually, Higgins didn't mention Reynolds. But he did want to know why the county would sell the landmark to someone who proved a poor caretaker. At the very least, Higgins said, the former owner should be required to tell lawmakers exactly what he has planned for the Argus.

Fair points, I think.

"They sat on it for years, they didn't pay taxes, they're bad neighbors," Higgins said about 1031 Broadway Associates, the business name used by O'Brien.

Higgins' objections inspired Todd Drake, the Republican from Latham, to stand and launch a rant — his word, not mine — of his own.

What message is the county sending, Drake asked, if it allows a property owner to avoid paying taxes while letting a building fall into disrepair — only to hand it back when a neighborhood revives?

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"I think it's obscene," Drake said. "It's an insult to taxpayers."

Pretty good rant, I think.

I'd guess that O'Brien wouldn't love it. Yet when I talked to him last week, O'Brien said he wasn't aware that the Argus had inspired so much legislative passion.

O'Brien didn't want to comment on the controversy, but he did contest the assertion that he no longer owns the building.

That's a bit confusing. I'd point O'Brien to the letter sent last month by his attorney, Peter Pastore, to County Executive Dan McCoy. The attorney describes it "as a formal request to reacquire" the Argus.

Well, I don't know why you'd reacquire something you already own. Pastore didn't respond to a request for comment.

I attempted to ask O'Brien about some of his other properties, including the old Larkin restaurant on Lark Street and former Williams Press complex in Menands, which is marked by graffiti and broken windows. O'Brien objected when I described the Williams building as an eyesore but otherwise declined to comment.

I'll grant that "eyesore" is a subjective description and that a different beholder's eyes might not be as irritated by the condition of the Williams Press building. I invite you to drive by and decide for yourself.

In any event, I reached out to McCoy's office to talk about all this and was put in touch with Michael McLaughlin, its director of policy and research.

McLaughlin said what's happening with the Argus is standard procedure. The county generally works even with property owners so delinquent that they have lost ownership of a building. Ultimately, the decision to sell each property rests with the County Legislature.

The leniency is due, in part, to the county not wanting to be in the real estate business. It doesn't want to be seen as taking properties away from owners who are willing to pay. Plus, $473,000 is a big sum to be recovering on behalf of taxpayers.

Fair enough.

But it's worth considering what the future of the Argus building will be without new ownership. The Historic Albany Foundation has been so worried about ongoing neglect there that it put the building on a list of most-endangered city landmarks.

If you want to see what the Argus and Williams buildings could be, check out the old Albany International complex, which is about halfway between them on Broadway. It has been converted to beautiful apartments.

The Lofts at One Broadway, as they are known, are an asset instead of an eyesore. They improve their neighborhood, rather than degrading it. They prove that good ownership really matters.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5442 • @chris_churchill