ALBANY — Jack’s Oyster House will be back in business starting next month before closing again in midwinter for what could be a yearlong gut-renovation of its historic State Street building.
The goal is to reestablish the brand to make it the centerpiece of what new owner NeoVista Hospitality Group is calling Jack’s Restaurant Group, with five food concepts, and two more food-related NeoVista businesses under different names, all at varying stages of development and all in downtown, according to John Hwang. He is the chief operating officer of the Long Island-based parent company, NeoVista Equities, which has moved rapidly into the Albany market since early this year despite having no prior experience in hospitality. NeoVista’s other ventures are in real estate.
Although NeoVista originally had other plans for the upper floors of the 13,000-square-foot Jack’s building at 44 State St., where Jack’s had banquet facilities, the company has decided to devote the entire building to spaces for Jack’s, including rooms for private events, Hwang said Thursday. This will be in addition to a former bank-turned-banquet hall at 60 State St., a block from Jack’s, that NeoVista now operates…