Amsterdam officials extend deadline for Chalmers site plans

PHOTOGRAPHER: Edward Munger Jr.

Amsterdam officials are extending the deadline for proposals to develop the Chalmers waterfront site on the city’s South Side.

City officials last month hosted developers for a site visit and set an Oct. 12 deadline for proposals. More people expressed interest after that meeting.

“We’re getting serious interest,” Mayor Ann Thane said Wednesday. Developers are looking to submit detailed plans, Thane said, so officials agreed to allot more time for the process.

The Chalmers Knitting Mill complex, situated in a highly visible site on the Mohawk River, sat unused and crumbling for decades before it was torn down in a months-long process that ended earlier this year.

Prior to demolition, the city and Long Island developer Uri Kaufman went to court over his plans to turn the Chalmers building into upscale apartments. A falling out between officials, and court action, ended that pursuit.

Now, the 3.5 acre site is cleared.

“It’s a perfect site at the foot of the pedestrian bridge and on the waterfront and just off the Thruway for a commercial center with residential opportunities above,” Thane said.

Robert von Hasseln, the city’s community and economic development director, said he heard from four other developers unable to attend the visit later on that day. All, he said, are people who have built in Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga and western new York.

“They’ve all got established track records,” von Hasseln said. “We want to do this right and that means giving these people the necessary time to put together their package.”

Von Hasseln said the city has been asked about the property for use as a variety of things like senior citizen housing, expensive housing to a hotel and convention center.

The city is highlighting the property’s attributes that include its proximity to the new pedestrian bridge that’s in the planning stages, the waterfront and continued expansion of Riverlink Park on the north side of the river.

Von Hasseln said he’s also promoting that the site is less than 30 miles from the Luther Forest technology park and in distance from the Canalway trail.

The new deadline for proposals was set for 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 26. Interested parties can contact von Hasseln at 518-841-4323 or at [email protected]