LA Group via City of Glens Falls (2021)
The buildings marked "D" in this picture have been torn down and the "South Street Market" will fill the area.
The estimated plan for the Market Center building that the City of Glens Falls is looking to build as part of the South Street redevelopment came in at about $6.5 million, about $3.5 million more than the city planned to spend. The city has only spent in the tens of thousands on the planning and design, officials are quick to state, and that sometimes planning just takes extra time. It is not just the one building that has no solid plan, the entire area along South Street on each side of Elm Street has no solidified plan.
And that is OK, Ward 2 council member Bill Collins said in a couple recent interviews.
"This project is a lot like getting your kitchen redone,” Collins told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com on Wednesday. You tell the designer all the great ideas you have for high-end cabinetry and granite countertops, and if the designer comes back with a beautiful kitchen that is way over budget, you adjust the design until it fits the budget, he said, adding, "That's what you do, and that's where we are."
The project is part of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, a $10 million New York State grant first won by Ed Bartholomew in 2017. Some of the money has already gone to the GFDrive Initiative and some was spent under Bartholomew’s watch on an initial, basic plan for the centerpiece building 59 South St.
Bartholomew died unexpectedly last year. [Read more about GFDrive here.]
Neither Collins nor Jeff Flagg, who has replaced Bartholomew as the city’s economic director, had hard figures on the cost of the current designs of the building, but they were minimal, as little has been designed thus far and the current architect used the initial drawings already on file as a starting point, so even some of that work was already paid.
They say the concepts were created and then estimated before the detailed, more costly work, was done.
Envision Architects, DPC, of Albany, has been working with the city, and they came forward with a basic cost outline of everything the city wanted in a year-round building that would work both as an indoor farmers market and as an event-and-meeting space.
That was $6.5 millon, officials said. It was heated and cooled geo-thermally, had a high-end sound system, four walls and was large at 10,000 square feet. On top of that, a new law has emissions targets that construction must hit by 2030 and 2050. They need to construct new buildings with those targets in mind, Flagg said. All of that drove the estimate over budget, he said.
Envision’s revised concept, that the city may officially see next week, is a 5,000 square-foot, three-season building. It may look a bit more like a pavilion with some indoor space and will leave room on the parcel at 59 South St. for a pocket park; currently that space is an open, dirt lot.
Other changes are in the works: the parking structure in current drawings next to what is now the Sandy’s Clam Bar building, may become a residential building. The parking garage will move to the Elm Street surface parking lot, a block away, off Exchange Street.
The Market Center building will still tie into redevelopment of two buildings at 45 South St. and 36 Elm St. The Elm Street building is generally referred to as the “incubator” building and the plan now takes some of the programming first planned for the larger Market Center building and moves it into the first floor of the incubator. A commercial kitchen will be part of that.
A full design not only includes the shape and style of the building but details of the heating/cooling, electrical and plumbing systems. Landscaping, storm water and other plans are also included. Envision's budget, as previously reported for the drafting and then creation of the full plan, is about $600,000.
Bonacio Construction of Saratoga Springs is the preferred developer of the commercial spaces in this area. They could not be reached for comment on this story.
New draft plans are expected next week.
Some DRI projects and their approximate costs, according to officials:
- $3 million for the Market Center building.
- $1.5 million will be used as a grant to help a private investor (currently Bonacio Construction) to fully develop the two neglected properties, including the "incubator" building.
- $4 million toward parking.
- $1.5 million toward streetscaping along Elm from Park to South streets.
- $500,000 for landscaping and creation of a pocket park.
Editor's note: Ward 2 Council member Bill Collins is running unopposed for mayor, and his campaign is an advertiser with FoothillsBusinessDaily.com.