Albany, New York

The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.

The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.

At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.

Albany is a capital city, and government owns most of its value. The State of New York alone holds about a fifth of the roll's $15.97B assessed total, and the County of Albany, through the Empire State Plaza title, about an eighth. The roll's wholly exempt section (2,829 parcels) carries 53% of all assessed value. Behind government come the hospitals and colleges: Albany Medical Center, St. Peter's, and the County-created authority that bought the Saint Rose campus. Figures group the name variants found on the 2025 roll (s1); acres are the parcel map's computed areas and are approximate.

New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.

Albany is built out: only 77 one-family parcels on the 2025 roll were built in 2018 or later. New housing is mostly apartments, built by single-purpose LLCs, the Albany Housing Authority and housing development fund companies, so no builders' league table can be drawn from the roll. The rows below are owners of record of the largest groups of new (2015 or later) residential parcels, which for rentals is usually the developer's own entity; the roll names no contractors. No permits table was opened. Of 20,861 one-to-three-family parcels, 2,385 are in an entity's name; the largest holders are under commercial.

The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.

Private commercial property in Albany is held mostly through single-asset LLCs, so owner names rarely show a portfolio. The groupings below come from the roll's owner and mailing-address fields (s1, 2025, taxable parcels); a shared mailing address is stated as such, not taken as proof of common ownership. No REIT filing was opened. The most valuable private parcels are One Commerce Plaza ($43.4M) and 255 Patroon Creek Blvd ($37.5M). Single-family rental is fragmented: the largest entity holders of one-to-three-family houses (last four rows) have 26-67 parcels each; no national single-family rental company appears.

Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.

1. NYS Tax Parcels Public, layer 1: 2025 assessment roll joined to county parcel polygons: primary owner, mailing address, property class, land/total assessed value, full market value, deed book/page; City of Albany (SWIS 010100) 29,409 parcels; read 4 Nov 2026 — NYS Office of Information Technology Services, Geospatial Services, with Albany County Real Property and NYS DTF ORPTS · openA
2. Real estate transfer tax: 'computed at a rate of two dollars for each $500, or fractional part thereof, of consideration'; 1% mansion tax on residences at $1 million or more — New York State Department of Taxation and Finance · openA
3. ORPTS Municipal Data Portal: 'Sales Web includes 10 years of property sales and transfers for all of New York State, except New York City', updated weekly, downloadable as Excel — New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Office of Real Property Tax Services · openA
4. Albany County Clerk, Schedule of Fees (tabs: Recording Fees, Searches, Online Records Search, Copies...; amounts load by script and were not readable) — Albany County, NY · openA
5. Empire State Plaza: built with Albany County bonds; the plaza 'was officially county property', ownership 'to be transferred to the state'; infobox owner State of New York; 44-floor Erastus Corning Tower — Wikipedia · openA
6. MVP Arena: owner Albany County, operator ASM Global, opened 30 Jan 1990, cost $69.4 million — Wikipedia · openA
7. College of Saint Rose: closed 2024; on 13 Mar 2025 the campus 'was sold to the Pine Hills Land Authority, a quasi-public entity created by Albany County, for $35 million' — Wikipedia · openA
8. List of tallest buildings in Albany: Corning Tower 44 floors; Smith Building; One Commerce Plaza 20 floors (1971); State Capitol 1899; City Hall 1883; University at Albany towers on the city line — Wikipedia · openA
9. W. Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus: about 330 acres, 16 state office buildings; Columbia Development bought 12.6 acres north of Washington Ave in 2006 for $4.2 million for Patroon Creek Corporate Center — Wikipedia · openA
10. College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering: Albany Nanotechnology Complex 'near Western Avenue and Fuller Road, west of the University at Albany Uptown Campus' — Wikipedia · openA
11. Albany Medical Center: 43 New Scotland Avenue, 766 beds, founded 1849 — Wikipedia · openA
12. Hilton Albany, 40 Lodge Street: 'Upstate New York's largest hotel in the Capital Region with 385 guest rooms and suites' — Discover Albany (albany.org) · openA
13. Port of Albany–Rensselaer: about 236 acres, ~202 in Albany; Albany Port District Commission is a State public-benefit corporation — Wikipedia · openA