ALBANY COUNTY — Ownership of the former College of Saint Rose Campus was transferred on March 13 to the Pine Hills Land Authority.

Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said at a Thursday press conference that key county services and departments will be moving from downtown to the uptown campus in the coming weeks.

The century-old college, facing financial hardship, closed last summer. At the end of last year, the Pine Hills Land Authority, backed by Albany County, won the bid to buy the 48-acre campus for $35 million.

On March 10, the county legislature approved $6 million for the authority to maintain campus security and infrastructure as revitalization plans unfold.

In February, Governor Kathy Hochul made an announcement at the campus, proposing that up to $40 million in state funds be spent to set up workforce training centers in three regions in New York: the Capital Region, the Finger Lakes, and the Mohawk Valley. 

The Capital Region center is to be located in a building on the former Saint Rose campus.

The three selected regions are to advance to the planning stage of the $200 million One Network for Regional Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships, known as ON-RAMP.

“This is how you meet the Micron moment, the opportunity,” said Hochul, referencing Micron Technology’s plans to invest up to $100 billion over the next 20 years to construct a semiconductor fabrication facility in Onondaga County.

The Center for Economic Growth is to lead the Capital Region’s ON-RAMP center, with a regional consortium of industry partners, including GlobalFoundries, Plug Power, General Electric, NSH USA, P1 Industries, and Regeneron, plus local trades and workforce training providers.

The Advance Albany County Alliance and the Albany County Pine Hills Land Authority said in February that the ON-RAMP project would “jumpstart” redevelopment of the campus.

 “There are many more steps and decisions ahead, but I can guarantee that the legislature will continue to proactively engage in revitalizing and rejuvenating the campus,” said Albany County Legislature Chairwoman Joanne Cunningham in a March 13 release announcing the real-estate closing.

“This real estate transaction is a symbol that the county will follow through on its goals to assist this neighborhood in recovering from the loss of the college,” said the legislature’s deputy chairwoman, chairwoman, Wanda Willingham.

“In the past,” Willingham went on, “I have experienced redevelopment projects that have stripped historically marginalized populations and communities bare, but today I am encouraged that the county remains engaged in investing in the wellbeing of its property and all of its people.”