Developers present amended plan for Quackenbush Square: 9-story office, 4-story mixed-use with 56 units; planning staff says no new environmental review needed

First Columbia LLC presented an amendment Sept. 11 to a previously approved downtown project — revising a development plan that includes a proposed nine‑story office building and a four‑story mixed‑use building with 56 dwelling units, roughly 4,000 square feet of retail space and about 76 off‑street parking spaces. Albany Planning Board staff told the board that the site was already remediated under the ground‑fill cleanup program, that the project remains a reduced‑intensity proposal compared with the 2018 approval, and that the board’s earlier negative environmental declaration (2018) remains valid. A staff speaker said, “this 2025 amendment is a reduced intensity of project with fewer residential units, lower chip generation, and substantially lower water and sewer demand,” and concluded “no supplemental [SEQR] review is warranted.” Project representatives described the site history, remediation work and the market rationale for the shift from…