Cuomo picks Albany for Wadsworth site

Under budget plan, new $750M lab would land at Harriman campus

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to build the new $750 million Wadsworth Center at the Harriman State Office Campus is a huge win for the city of Albany, which had been in competition to keep the state’s public health lab and its 800 jobs from moving across the Hudson River to East Greenbush.

Cuomo revealed Tuesday in his budget proposal plans to build the lab at the Harriman campus.

The University at Albany had lobbied to move Wadsworth, which is operated by the

state Department of Health in multiple buildings in Albany and Guilderland, to its Health Sciences Campus in East Greenbush, where the university has its School of Public Health, which works closely with Wadsworth.

However, in the end, Cuomo decided that Albany was the right place for Wadsworth, despite the synergy with Ualbany.

Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, who represents the city and parts of Albany County, said she did “cartwheels” when she heard the good news.

Fahy has been advocating that Wadsworth must remain in the city as part of any funding for new lab facilities. The lab, considered one of the premier public health labs in the country, has become too cramped and outdated in recent decades to keep up with its mission.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan said she hopes this project will help better make the case for Albany’s need for $12.5 million in state aid.

There’s long been talk about either setting up a paymentin-lieu-of-taxes agreement for the Harriman Campus to help bridge the gap Albany suffers from the sprawling site being off the city’s tax rolls, or selling off the land to private developers. Neither option has come to fruition.

If Wadsworth was being built on city land not already taxexempt, Sheehan said Albany would have the opportunity to create a PILOT.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that this opens the door for permanent funding,” she said.

Cuomo and the Legislature had previously approved the $750 million in funding for the new lab in previous budgets. Contractors were already being sought for the project, although no location had yet been announced. The two finalists were Albany and the Ualbany site in East Greenbush. There is not enough room to build it near its current building locations in downtown Albany.

Fahy noted in a tweet Tuesday afternoon that the Wadsworth announcement was a big deal.

“#Wadsworthlabs is the biggest win for the #Capitalregion in the @Nygovcuomo State of the State!” Fahy wrote. “$750M is biggest single local public investment (since) @Sunypolyinst & @GLOBALFOUNDRIES!”

Ualbany officials said they are behind the decision to put Wadsworth at Harriman, which is right next to its main uptown campus. Ualbany is building its new Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Complex, or ETEC, facility at Harriman as well.

“We are excited that Gov. Cuomo is proposing to build New York’s new, state-of-theart Wadsworth Center next to the University at Albany’s uptown campus,” said Ualbany spokesman Jordan Carleoevangelist. “This is a powerful opportunity to build on the successful, 33-year partnership between Wadsworth and Ualbany’s School of Public Health as well as explore new collaborations involving Ualbany’s world-leading atmospheric science and homeland security researchers, who will be based nearby in the university’s new Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurship Complex.”

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan said she hopes this project will help better make the case for Albany’s need for $12.5 million in state aid.