Albany Convention Center Authority
Meeting Minutes
Cahill Room, Harold Joyce Office Building
November 30, 2007

[PDF* 19 KB]

ATTENDEES:
George Leveille, Lori Harris, Jack McEneny, Brad Rosenstein, Gavin Donohue, Joseph Pennisi, Michael Perrin
Absentees - L. Lloyd Stewart and Michele Vennard

CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL:
Meeting was called to order at 8:30 and a roll call was taken by Chairman Leveille.

PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD
Carolyn McLaughlin - Common Council Member/CEEEJ
JoAnn Morton - South End Neighborhood Association/CEEEJ
Roger Markovics - United Tenants of Albany/CEEEJ
Dominick Calsolaro - Common Council Member
Gene Rodriguez - Capital District Worker Center
John Wolcott - Citizen

APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MEETING MINUTES
The October 26, 2007 meeting minutes were reviewed.  A motion was made by Mr. Donohue to adopt the minutes, seconded by Mr. Rosenstein; unanimously adopted.

BUSINESS REPORT:

• Chair Report
  Mr. Leveille acknowledged that from recent meetings the ACCA has made progress.  The most recent meeting was Community Benefits, Developers Roundtable #4 and Times Union Editorial Forum, all meetings were well attended.   Given the responses from those meetings, the Authority is taking a positive step to ensure that all needs will be addressed.  Mr.  Leveille read a statement from Ms. Vennard “As a member of the focus group and after participating fully in the review process leading to the recommendation of the operator, I offer that I am in full support of the decision to recommend the firms Starwood and SMG to operate the hotel and convention center respectively.”

• Treasurer Report
  Mr. Pennisi went over the October financials; summary of net assets and summary of revenue and expenses for the ACCA.
  
  
• Authority Report
1. Planning & Development - Duncan Stewart
   
   1. Master Planning – A Base plan has been established for the master plan that included the construction of Convention Center and Hotel south of Hudson Avenue.  Develop a parking structure below the Convention Center with approximately 1000 vehicles and construct elevated pedestrian bridge to the Times Union Center. The transportation and parking meeting with NYSDOT will be mid-December to further advance the concept of the proposed direct access to Broadway.  The draft GEIS should be ready for adoption by the ACCA Board at the January 25th Board meeting.
   2. Design Team – The design team completed the preliminary initial draft of the program.  Two schemes were developed for locating the building program on the site and to study how the building program will “fit” on the site.  A preliminary, initial site survey and limited geotechnical soil boring investigations have begun.   Requests for dry utility information have been requested from all franchised utilities.  An initial LEED “scorecard” was developed of the potential credits that could be anticipated for this project.
   3. Affirmative Action/Economic Inclusion Plan - Deborah Williams-Muhammad
      
      Ms. Williams-Muhammad is currently working with local businesses to prepare them for the upcoming projects for the Convention Center.  Ms. Williams-Muhammad has also work diligently with the focus groups on the Operator selection and Community Benefit Program (CBP).
      
      
2. Operations update - Al Sorrentino
1. Operator selection Focus Group – The ACCA Hotel/Convention Center Selection Group Focus Group made the recommendation to the authorities Board of Directors to enter into negotiations with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide as hotel operator and SMG as the Convention Center operator.  A motion to adopt the recommendation was made by Mr. Rosenstein, seconded by Ms. Harris; unanimously adopted.
2. Real Estate Broker activity - The owners and tenants of the various parcels required for the 1B-archaeological investigation have granted permission for survey work only to be done on their properties at this time.
3. Internal Controls Outline – The outline of Internal Controls policies to be written and implemented was handed out as part of the Board Packet. This was requested from our 2006 Audit and Mr. Pennisi, the ACCA Board Treasurer.  Mr. Sorrentino requested that the Board of Directors review the policies and make any suggestions.
4. ESDC - The first requisition for $624,302 was submitted on October 25, 2007 and the second requisition for $388,700 was submitted on October 29th.
5. 2008 Meeting Schedule – The 2008 proposed meeting schedule was presented to the Board for their review. The proposed January meeting was changed from January 25th to February 1st.
   
   
• Legal Report – Hal Patrick, General Counsel – No business

Other Business
No other business was conducted.

Adjourn
A motion to adjourn was made by Mr. McEneny; seconded by Mr. Pennisi; unanimously adopted.

Next Meeting Date and Time:
Friday, December 28, 2007, 8:30 AM
112 State Street – Cahill Room
Harold Joyce Office Building

[Back] [Home]

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view PDF documents. You can get the FREE reader from the Adobe Acrobat site by clicking here and following the instructions, or visiting www.adobe.com and looking for the link to their "Free Adobe Acrobat Reader."