New sheriff substation to open on former St. Rose campus

The future of the College of Saint Rose campus has started to take shape. Albany County is in talks to establish a new substation for the Albany County Sheriff’s Office on the former college campus.

Feb 4, 2025 - 23:18
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New sheriff substation to open on former St. Rose campus

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – The future of the College of Saint Rose campus has started to take shape. Albany County is in talks to establish a new substation for the Albany County Sheriff’s Office on the former college campus.

Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said the Pine Hills Land Authority does not want the Saint Rose buildings to sit empty for too long.

McCoy said residents can expect senior housing, recreation, restaurants and a new substation for the sheriff’s office.

He said he talked to neighbors and business owners. He asked what’s important to them and safety was one thing that was brought up.

“It’s important. So we’re going to keep the security intact. I knew that from the beginning when we were going down this road because it’s 46 acres in the middle of the city. There’s a lot of buildings we are not going to be able to utilize right away that are going to stay vacant for a while,” said McCoy.

“Currently I  run all of the city units out of the county courthouse, which you know it’s the best I can do right now. So when the county executive took over Saint Rose, he said it would be nice for you to have a place up there that you can work out of. And I’m very appreciative for that,” said Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple.

They want law enforcement present to deter criminal activity. McCoy said the county has mixed-use plans for the college property and that includes moving other county agencies there – like the departments of finance, aging and Veterans Service Bureau. But, he said, other initiatives will take time.

“Hopefully you see more of this. I know people want something quick. You'll see some quick stuff. Housing and other things are gonna take some time and some of the buildings are going to be really hard to figure out,” said McCoy.

Sheriff Apple is looking forward to taking over the safety and security building, and possibly another building on the property.

“It’ll get my units out of the county courthouse, which is very hard to run a station out of the bottom of the courthouse. It’ll get them out and it’ll also increase our presence on the campus and hopefully keep anybody from trying to do any mischief on the campus,” said Apple.

“And now the next step is to get permission from Saint Rose to start accommodating what we need in that public safety building, which isn’t a lot initially. Just some space, an office,” said McCoy. “Get running and learning the security operations, cause we’re gonna run the security in a partnership with the sheriff.”

McCoy said they’re looking to hire the St. Rose security that’s already monitoring the premises and will hire additional security, if needed. 

The closing is slated for March 1 and McCoy expects the substation will be up and running shortly after that.

And there could be new developments later this week. Governor Kathy Hochul is expected to make an announcement related to Saint Rose on Thursday.

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