Patricia Fahy, now a state senator, is moving forward with work she undertook during her tenure as an assemblywoman: revitalizing the Harriman Campus.

At a press conference on Monday held in one of the campus parking lots — Fahy called the campus the “uptown parking lot district” — she pushed legislation that would redevelop 7 acres with housing and commercial or retail space as part of the already approved $1.7 billion Wadsworth Labs project, for which 27 acres of the 330-acre campus has been designated.

The Senate bill also calls for creating a master plan for the redesign of the Harriman Campus, to be “made available for public comment no later than one year after the effective date.”

In the State Assembly, that legislation is backed by Gabriella Romero, who now holds the seat Fahy left, representing Albany, New Scotland, and parts of Guilderland — including the Harriman Campus — and John McDonald, representing Albany, Rensselaer, and Saratoga counties.

The three Democrats believe this would integrate the campus with the surrounding community and spur local economic growth.

The bill’s sponsors noted that a 2007 study by the Capital Region Transportation Council called for mixed-use and residential development to complement a redesign of Harriman’s existing transportation grid with a “spine” running from Route 20 through the Harriman and University at Albany campuses and on to the Nanotech Campus.

The Harriman office complex is adjacent to the University at Albany’s uptown campus and includes UAlbany’s ETEC (originally an acronym for Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Complex). A recent report said that UAlbany itself generates $1.1 billion in economic activity throughout the Capital Region.

Fahy said she first heard the term “transit-oriented development,” from Peter Barber, Guilderland’s supervisor, who was also at Monday’s press conference. TOD districts, like the one in Guilderland, are meant to put residential, business, and leisure space within walking distance of public transit.

“I think it’s been completely overlooked,” said Fahy.

“We should be reconnecting communities, not dividing them. Retaining a campus with no transit-oriented or walkable development means that the Harriman Campus remains a black hole to over 20 percent of the Albany households who do not have access to a car,” said Benjamin MacKrell of Capital Streets, reading a statement at Monday’s press conference from Jacki Gonzales, project manager.

The not-for-profit Capital Streets was formed during the pandemic and is committed to creating a better, safer, and more equitable transportation system, which is transit-oriented and accessible to walkers and cyclists.

The office campus at the west end of Albany was planned in the 1950s by Governor W. Averell Harriman, for whom it was named. It was built in the Albany Pine Bush next to the Albany Country Club, where the university’s uptown campus is now.

Bordered by a ring road, which divides the campus from surrounding neighborhoods, the complex was meant to be accessible to state workers, many of whom lived in the suburbs. The first building, for the Department of Civil Service, opened in 1956.

Building continued apace throughout the 1960s. Then, in the 1970s, under Governor Hugh Carey, many state workers were relocated from suburban to urban settings. This continued through the Mario Cuomo and George Pataki administrations.

Fahy credited Andrew Cuomo with wanting to consolidate laboratories so Wadsworth would “regain world-class status.”

When “the labs were supposed to go across the river,” Fahy said, she worked with McDonald and then-Senator Neil Breslin “to keep those labs here in Albany and in the heart of the region.”

She commended Governor Kathy Hochul for “not only moving forward on the labs but also increasing the public investment to $1.7 billion, which is the largest public investment in Harriman and also one of the largest public investments since SUNY Poly, which led to … Global Foundries and so many other multi-million-dollar investments,” Fahy said.

A little over half of the seven acres allotted for the Wadsworth project would be for the labs themselves “with the rest of it going to parking lots,” Fahy said.

She described the campus as “some of the worst of a 1960s design … the vast majority of it is already composed of parking lots.”

The point of the proposed legislation, said Fahy, is to “really think more boldly” rather than thinking of it “as just a one-off” for the labs. “Even the tiniest part of a ring road could free up dozens of acres for this pro-housing agenda that we all know is needed.”

The lab is projected to be finished by 2030 and other development could be built along with it, she said.

Romero echoed Fahy’s thought, saying, “This legislation that we’re about to introduce is about creating balance, supporting the lab’s mission while fostering the growth of small business, providing more housing, and making our neighborhoods more walkable and more accessible.”

She said she looked forward to “creating a very vibrant, uptown Albany that’s a sustainable place to live and work.”

“For over 25 years,” McDonald said, “I’ve been hearing about, we need to do some development on Harriman.” He repeated the phrase three times, concluding, “It’s time to actually do some development on Harriman Campus.”

He said the upgrades would “attract even more talented individuals to call New York state and specifically Albany home.”

McDonald concluded, “It’s critical that we advance this legislation, which will not impede this project whatsoever because all approvals have actually already been done.”

Michael Lyons, president of the Greater Capital Region Building and Construction Trades Council, said that the $1.7 billion Wadsworth project “means that hundreds of our members locally will be working on this project day in and day out for the next five years.”

More development and more commercial projects on the acreage not used by Wadsworth he said, “just means more work for our members here, locally, keeping money in the CapitalRegion, reinvesting in the Capital Regional. And I love the vision — I think it’s going to be transformative.”

Lyons concluded, “We are chomping at the bit to get shovels in the ground.”

MacKrell, with Capital Streets, said developing mixed-use residential, commercial, and retail space on the Harriman Campus would “help the state attract employees who want to live, work, and play in Albany. Unlike in the 1960s, talented people are not excited about a life in which they drive to an office campus surrounded by parking lots only, then drive back to their homes in the suburbs.”

The proposed legislation, MacKrell said, “would return underutilized state land to productive development in Albany, connecting communities rather than continuing to divide them.”

Fahy said the Capital Streets perspective “really captures” the Harriman Campus proposal as well as the work on reconfiguring Interstate 787 so that it doesn’t cut Albany residents off from the Hudson River waterfront.

“We know what attracts talent … Play is so important. And that’s part of why we’ve had tremendous support from PEF,” Fahy said, referencing the Public Employees Federation.

“We’re selling ourselves short by just going to add more parking,” Fahy concluded, as she gestured to the parking lot around her. The “multiplier effect” of investment in the Wadsworth Public Health Laboratory project, she said, could be "limitless."