VOORHEESVILLE – If the Voorheesville Diner hadn’t been torn down on May 11, it may have crumbled of its own accord, said James Olsen, the new owner of the site at 39 Voorheesville Ave.

He told The Enterprise that he plans to build a new restaurant, similar to a diner.

Olsen – who, according to Albany County records bought the property for $125,000 from the diner’s previous owner, John Flansburg, on March 3 – said that when engineers began investigating the old building, they found that it had not been built on a concrete footing, and was rotting into the ground.

The diner, which had been an icon in the village, situated next to the railroad tracks, had closed on Dec. 3. “We did not have enough business to keep us going!! Thank you all!” said a posting on the diner’s Facebook page.

At the time, Mayor Robert Conway said, when the village did outreach for its comprehensive plan almost everyone wanted a restaurant. The village has none since the diner closed and Smith’s Tavern was sold to Stewart’s Shops.

Olsen said that, when he bought the building, he knew it was in bad shape, and that what happened could have been the worst-case scenario, but concluded, “We’re happy with what we got.”