Steve Thurston (2021)
The Kiley's building at 45 South Street along with the building next door, at 36 Elm Street, were planned for renovation, but may be sold, in the latest iteration of plans for South Street's redevelopment. (File photo.)
Larry Novik, Bonacio Construction’s director of business development, says negotiations with the City of Glens Falls to redevelop 36 Elm St. and 45 South St. and to build a new mixed-use building next to New Way Lunch are nearly finished.
“We’re in the final stages,” Novik told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com Friday. “I expect things will be completed in the next couple of weeks.”
While the city rethinks its farmers’ market concept on the vacant South Street parcel next to 45 South St., Bonacio Construction is ready to get to work.
The city has set aside $1.5-million of Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant money that it would give to Bonacio Construction to help renovate the two existing buildings, which are historic and cannot be torn down. Novik said renovation would likely start this spring after some planning and design.
Sonny Bonacio already owns 41 South St., the Sandy’s Clam Bar building, on the corner of Elm Street. Novik said plans for that building depend on plans for the whole block.
“Loosely, I can say we hope it ties in and becomes an integral part of that redevelopment, but I don’t have those details yet,” Novik said.
Bonacio also holds the option to construct a building at the site what is now the South Street Pavilion, between the Sandy's Clam Bar building and New Way Lunch.
“We’re still kicking around a lot of different ideas but I can say it will most likely be a mixed-use building with residential units above and commercial uses on the first floor.
Novik said South Street has nothing but potential. He said his company has monitored downtown for 10 years, ever since their plan for the mixed use building at 14 Hudson.
“We couldn’t be happier with all of the progress that has been made and all of the wonderful new projects that have come about,” he said.
He mentioned Chris Patten’s redevelopment of the building on the corner of South and Glen Streets, the restaurant Flight in Mike Kaidas’ Empire Theater building, and Russ Porrecca’s recent purchase of the former Dizzy Chicken building. [Read more about that here.]
He said he’s not concerned that the city is rethinking its plans for the Market Center building.
“Cost overruns, especially these days, are a normal part of such a complicated development process,” he said. “Eventually you figure out what the right building is for the budget you have.”
Glens Falls City Council member Bill Collins, Ward 2, and the city’s economic development director, Jeff Flagg, agreed that there is nothing improper about replanning the city’s portion of development.
After a city council meeting in September, when news that the first designs of the Market building were over budget, FoothillsBusinessDaily.com asked if the city should just sell the property on South Street and let the market take over.
No, both Collins and Flagg said. The two buildings that Bonacio will redevelop with help from the city have been vacant for years and could have been renovated, they said. It was the city’s investment that encouraged developers to jump in.
The city has a total of $10 million in state grant money through the DRI, and they see that as a catalyst to encourage development.
In subsequent interviews Collins said selling the property means the city loses control, forfeits use of the DRI money on that development, and removes the commitment to the neighborhood that developers need to see.
But is this government overreach, developing property that will not live up to its potential?
Collins said he knows of those troubles elsewhere, as with a soccer complex in Rochester, but that will not happen on the South Street property. The city's property is close enough to the redevelopment already happening on Glen Street, just over a block away, and the city's investment will draw private investment toward it, he said. He pointed to the same activity that Novik mentioned as proof that the development is coming.