Downtown Albany bar space set to return in apartment project

The empty building at 5 Clinton Square in Albany, center, will become nine apartments as part of a redevelopment plan. Despite the sign, the first-floor cafe space has not been The French Press since 2019. It, too, will become housing. Steve Barnes/Times Union The nightclub Legends on Pearl closed at the end of August in 2015, leaving the space vacant ever since. Four upstairs floors have been empty ever longer. New owners plan an overhaul for a new bar or restaurant space for 86 N. Pearl St. and 12 or 13 apartments above. An opening late next year or early 2028 is projected. Steve Barnes/Times Union ALBANY — A long-vacant bar location downtown will be revived as part of two office-to-apartment building conversions by J&J Investment Properties, a company that has redeveloped more than 50 residential properties in the city and also brought back the Washington Tavern. The new projects received a combined $1.375 million in recently announced state grants in the city. The bar-and-restaurant space will be on the ground floor of 84 N. Pearl St., a five-story building with long-empty offices and a street-level commercial unit that has been dark since Legends on Pearl closed 11 years ago. At 5 Clinton Square nearby, next to McGeary's Pub, a street-level cafe that most recently was home to a location of Nocturnal Cookies will become one of nine apartments in a building, also five stories, that is fully vacant. Advertisement Article continues below this ad J&J Investment Properties is owned by Justin Schmiemann and business partner John 'Jay' Corallo. According to the announcement from Gov. Kathy Hochul's office, J&J will receive $775,000 toward a $3 million-plus project at 84 N. Pearl St. for 12 or 13 apartments and the ground-floor retail space. The company was awarded $600,000 to turn 5 Clinton Square into nine apartments, with a total estimated cost of at least $2.4 million. On Tuesday, Schmiemann confirmed the details, which were first reported by The Business Review. He said J&J expects to close on the real estate in the next two months. Completion dates are projected for late 2027 and early 2028, he said. The partners chose not to try to make the ground floor of 5 Clinton Square into another cafe or small restaurant because there are similar existing spaces available downtown, and they believe it will be more appealing as housing, Schmiemann said. Legends on Pearl surrendered its liquor license and closed in August 2015 after a tumultuous four-year run, capped by the crash of a box truck full of alcohol. The bar space, between what is now a location of Viva Empanadas and the forthcoming bar Norma's (formerly Blue 82), previously was home to the nightclub Plastic, the pub-turned-club Mad River Bar & Grille and Fort Orange Cafe over the past two decades. Sign up for the Table Hopping newsletter Keep up with the latest on the local restaurant scene twice a week with Steve Barnes. Sign up here At 5 Clinton Square, Nocturnal Cookies was the most recent street-level food business, succeeding The Paper Dragon (opened in 2019), The French Press Cafe & Creperie (2015), CoffeeTime@HellasBakery (2013) and Melville's Mug (2007). Advertisement Article continues below this ad J&J Investment Properties owns about 40 buildings in Pine Hills, 13 in Center Square and two downtown, according to Schmiemann.