Photography by Dori Fitzpatrick
Jeff Buell is one of the Capital Region’s leading real estate developers—and an avid cyclist.
When he bikes through Albany, Schenectady, and Troy, he sees the many projects he’s had a hand in—the numerous old buildings that have been rehabbed and turned into apartments, offices, and retail space. “It’s a nice, 50-mile ride, and I go past significant, impactful projects in each one of the downtowns,” says Buell, a charismatic 44-year-old with a passion for urban living. “It makes me smile.”
His rides also remind him of projects that never came to fruition, like his plan for turning Central Warehouse, the hulking eyesore that looms over Albany’s skyline, into a mixed-use residential-commercial space. That project was too expensive, and demolition on the building began in August.
“That’s the nature of the things I work on,” says Buell. “Sometimes they’re not going to work. Sometimes the numbers don’t work. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. That’s the one thing we need a lot more of in this region: people trying.”
Buell can point to a track record of success that includes more than two dozen real estate projects totaling more than 1,000 new apartments and $250 million. His accomplishments include converting Albany’s long-vacant Kenmore Hotel into 93 upscale apartments, and the revitalization of the 500 block of State Street in Schenectady, a downtown strip transformed into apartments, restaurants, and medical office space.
These days, Buell is focused on what would be his most ambitious undertaking yet: bringing a mixed-use development with an open-air professional soccer stadium to an expanse of Albany dominated by parking lots and empty buildings. He is a member of a group that intends to submit a proposal to the economic development agency Capitalize Albany that would remake the area.
Last year, ESPN announcer Rebecca Lobo was roundly criticized by City officials and civic boosters for saying there’s nothing to do in Albany on national television during the women’s NCAA basketball tournament at MVP Arena. Buell is among those who believe Lobo had a point—that the city’s downtown, with its overabundance of office buildings and parking lots, is not the lively hub of arts, dining, and entertainment that it should and could be.
“You can’t have a thriving region when your biggest city’s downtown is visited, on average, a couple of times a year by people,” Buell says. That reality, he continues, is “why we need to do something ridiculous, like build a soccer stadium.”
A Troy native who still calls the city home, Buell never had any intention of becoming a real estate developer. His career began as a reporter at the Troy Record. He then went to work for the City of Troy, eventually serving as economic development coordinator.
In 2012, Buell founded his own real estate development firm, Sequence Development. He merged with Redburn Development in 2017, making name for himself with his passion for repurposing historic buildings. Buell left Redburn at the end of 2024 and is now, in his words, “out bootstrapping again.”
In Buell’s eyes, the Capital Region abounds with opportunities for people who want to make a difference by breathing life into dormant buildings and rundown streets. “People have been living in clustered cities for millennia now,” he says. “Why would that change? The more we can create new things in our cities, the more people will return to them.”
