By Teresa Mulvaney
BUFFALO — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday put six acres of a state psychiatric campus in Utica up for redevelopment as housing, calling it part of a push to give “state-owned properties a new life.” In Buffalo, a smaller piece of a former state psychiatric campus is still waiting on the paperwork to do the same.
A bill that would let the state sell about 1.62 acres of the former Buffalo Psychiatric Center grounds, including a long-vacant 1904 dormitory, to the nonprofit Richardson Center Corporation passed both houses of the Legislature in early June. More than four months later, the bill, S9538-A/A10733-A, has not been delivered to the governor, according to the Legislature’s online bill records. The last recorded action is “returned to senate” on June 4.
What the bill does
The measure, sponsored by Sen. April Baskin and Assemblyman Jon Rivera, both Buffalo Democrats, authorizes the commissioner of general services, with the consent of the commissioner of mental health, to convey the land to the Richardson Center Corporation “for fair-market value.” The parcels lie north of Forest Avenue, east of Rees Street and south of Rockwell Road, next to the restored Richardson Olmsted Campus.
The land would have to be used “exclusively” for a mixed-use campus for community benefit, “including affordable housing,” or it would revert to the state. The corporation would have one year to apply for the transfer.
The sponsors’ memo says the parcels “are no longer needed for state operations” and that, without legislative authorization, “the transfer of these parcels cannot proceed, limiting the ability to fully realize a unified vision for the site.” It lists the bill’s fiscal implications as “none.”
The Senate passed the bill June 2 and the Assembly June 4, according to the Assembly’s record of Senate and Assembly actions.
The dormitory
The property includes the three-story former male nurses dormitory, built in 1904 for the Buffalo State Asylum and left empty since the Buffalo Psychiatric Center vacated it in the 1990s, Buffalo Toronto Public Media reported in June.
Richardson Center Corporation President Paris Roselli told the station the plans are preliminary. “There’s a discussion about the fabric of this whole thing,” Mr. Roselli said. “Ideally we have residential spaces up top. We’ve talked about artist space, perhaps on the ground level, or some sort of commercial, maybe residency space. So there are a number of ideas in play, and the building’s bones are really good, which is great.”
Mr. Rivera pointed to historic tax credits as part of the financing picture. “I would much rather invest the money in a building like this than build some other cookie-cutter, un-unique, kind of bland structure,” he said.
Bernice Radle, executive director of Preservation Buffalo Niagara, said, “It’s absolutely worth saving. These buildings are really important.” She added that “historic tourism is one of the biggest economic drivers to our region, and this just adds to that.”
The corporation’s campus already includes the Richardson Hotel and the Lipsey Architecture Center, which was under construction at the time of the June report.
The clock
Under the state Constitution, the governor has 10 days, excluding Sundays, to act on a bill while the Legislature is in session, but 30 days once the Legislature has adjourned. Because lawmakers decide when to send bills to the governor, typically in consultation with her office, many bills passed in June are delivered in batches through the fall and up to the end of the year. A bill passed in 2026 that is never delivered by the end of the two-year session dies.
That makes the bill one of many local measures still sitting in Albany. Delivery does not guarantee a signature, and the governor can veto bills or negotiate changes, known as chapter amendments, before signing.
Hochul’s state-land push
The Utica announcement shows the administration’s appetite for the kind of reuse the Buffalo bill envisions. The request for proposals covers a 6.13-acre site on the 119-acre Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center campus and seeks at least 50 supportive housing units for people with serious mental illness alongside affordable housing. Responses are due Feb. 1, 2027.
“We are committed to giving state-owned properties a new life as we address New York’s housing needs while creating new opportunities for communities to thrive,” Ms. Hochul said in the announcement.
Office of Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan said, “Maintaining safe, stable housing is a critical component of recovery for individuals living with mental illness.”
Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas called redeveloping the property “a smart way to address the housing crisis while at the same time injecting new life into an underutilized state asset.”
The Utica site can draw on the governor’s $500 million Redevelopment of Underused Sites for Housing program, known as NY-RUSH, first funded in the fiscal year 2025 budget and aimed at up to 15,000 homes on underused state property. In Buffalo, Empire State Development has committed $12 million in NY-RUSH money to the $225 million North Aud Block at Canalside.
The Buffalo campus transfer differs in one key way: the state would sell the land to an existing nonprofit steward at fair-market value rather than solicit developers through a competitive process.
The Buffalo Chronicle has asked the governor’s office whether Ms. Hochul intends to sign the bill when it reaches her desk.
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