ALBANY — The owner of the historic 76-acre Kenwood Academy property in Albany says his firm’s vision for redevelopment of the site took many twists and turns before settling on the current plan for a high-tech data center campus.
Real estate developer Michael-Henry Elghanian-Krayem, who acquired the property in 2023 in a mortgage foreclosure auction, says project plans have gone through several iterations since his company, EKG Group, got involved.
Several themes were studied over that time, including a market-rate housing project, an affordable housing complex and, later, an Amazon-style warehouse and logistics center.
In a phone interview on Thursday, Elghanian-Krayem explained that none of those three previous ideas were deemed viable, either from a financial or public policy perspective…