Collaboration key for making Capital Region gondola a reality
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“We want to be very mindful, not about what it’s going to look like at opening … but what it’s going to look like five and 10 years down the road when hopefully we see some development here at and around the station,” he said to Rensselaer officials Monday. “What we’ve seen in other parts of the world with these urban gondolas is pretty significant induced demand – it’s the ‘if you build it they will come’ kind of thing.”
Madison said 80 percent of the funding has already been secured through private investors, and they’ve applied for state grants to pay for the rest.
If fully funded, the first gondola would cross the river between Rensselaer and Albany sometime in early 2020, "making the Capital Region a national leader in this rapidly emerging urban access technology,” according to the project’s application to the Planning Commission.
Planning commissioner Raymond Stevens said with construction costs lower than building a new bridge, or highway, and the “niche market” from the train station in to downtown Albany, this seems like a feasible project.
“It’s about bringing in economic development,” he said. “With Rensselaer developing the waterfront, and Albany with the Times Union Center and now the convention center and anything else they may have planned, this just brings in business.””
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https://www.timesunion.com/news/arti...o-13218728.php
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