ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Community leaders in Albany unveiled plans for a new Black arts and culture center in the city. The Alice Moore Black Arts and Cultural Center is replacing the African-American Culture Center of the Capital Region, which was dissolved because of a lack of funding.

The new organization will be housed in the same building on South Pearl Street. Leaders are planning to buy property next door and add rental apartments and affordable housing on the upper floors of both. It will help the center bring in revenue and address housing shortages in the area.

“We’ve already been approached by developers who find this space very valuable, and as a matter of fact, asked us to sell it to them,” Alice Green, president of the Alice Moore Foundation, said. “But we said no. Our commitment is to this community and to arts and cultural programming, and that’s what we will do with it.”

Former board members of the African-American Culture Center are spearheading the project. They are still looking for a director for the new center.