From left, St. Lawrence County Administrator Karen St. Hilaire, Empire State Development Corporation director of real estate and planning Thomas Conoscenti, Ogdensburg City Manager John Pinkerton, City Planner Andrea Smith and Senator Patty Ritchie.

OGDENSBURG -- A representative from Empire State Development Corporation today toured the vacant St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center, along with state and local representatives, according to state Sen. Patty Ritchie.

“I want to thank Ken Adams, the CEO for Empire State Development, for sending his personal representative to see first-hand how my plan to redevelop Airy Point could be the key to kick-starting Ogdensburg’s economy and putting people back to work,” Ritchie said in a news release. “I want to thank representatives of the City of Ogdensburg and the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority for partnering with me to help state officials understand why we need a comprehensive approach to redeveloping the campus.”

In addition to the Empire Development rep and the Senator, St. Lawrence County Administrator Karen St. Hilaire, Ogdensburg City Manager John Pinkerton and City Planner Andrea Smith were present.

The 45-acre parcel is at the center of a plan backed by Ritchie to use the property for economic development.

Earlier in the month, local and state officials, including the assistant corrections commissioner toured the site.

Last year, community leaders across Northern New York came together to help convince Albany to save the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center, Ritchie said. She saw the local support as a chance to take the blighted properties and empty buildings and use them for job creation, according to Ritchie's statement.

“This won’t happen overnight, but the legislation I passed this year to begin the transfer process is helping use develop a pilot program to show the entire state how a community can transform underutilized assets into a tremendous opportunity for the region,” Ritchie says in the release.

The land is situated along state Route 37, close to the international Ogdensburg-Prescott Bridge and is one of four parcels at the Psych Center that the state has previously identified as surplus. Under Ritchie’s plan, the property would be immediately available to developers once the final transfer from state to city control is complete.