$5 million? For Socks?

Read carefully.

The owners of the Esplanade site paid somewhere around $10,000,000 for the block, yes, plus a BUILDING.
There is no longer a building on the site.
There is only sand, weeds, a few handsome shrubs, lots of human debris and a few fallen socks.
The site has lain dormant for nearly four years: no improvements.
Property values in Albany have fallen over those four years.
This means, forgive me if my maths are out, that CS Partners are asking for $5,000,000 for SOCKS!
Brilliant.
That is probably a record price for a public art project.