Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
Chronicle Managing Editor Cathy DeDe writes: Glens Falls plans a groundbreaking ceremony at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 20, for the long-awaited “Event and Market Center” on South Street, downtown.
The $5 million project is a signature piece of the City’s $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant awarded by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2016.
“The Event and Market Center is expected to be transformative,” Mayor Bill Collins said in the groundbreaking announcement, adding that South Street “will no longer be the last corridor of the city untouched by economic progress.”
The Market Center, designed by Envision Architects of Troy, is said to be inspired by the shape of a yellow birch leaf.
It’s a semi-open-air market on the site of the former OTB and Juicin Jar properties and will accommodate community events, festivals and its touted anchor, the Glens Falls Farmers’ Market.
Work will begin “right away,” Glens Falls Economic Development Director Jeff Flagg told The Chronicle.
The Market, which is being developed by the City of Glens Falls, is designed to tie into the first floor of the former Incubator building on Elm Street — which is to house a community kitchen and open floor plan for vendors and events.
That project is not in City hands.
It is Phase One of Sonny Bonacio’s Spring City Development project, which also will renovate the former Hotshots and Sandy’s buildings at South and Elm.
Phase Two of Mr. Bonacio’s DRI-supported Spring City effort on South Street is the five-story, two-building, 70-unit apartment and mixed-use project planned on the site of the current Farmers’ Market and adjacent city parking lot.
Some complications, even as shovels are about to hit ground: Both parts of the Bonacio project are on hold while Spring Street waits to apply for the next round of New York State Home and Community Renewal (HCR) tax credits in November, with the outcome unlikely to be known before early winter, Dr. Flagg said.
DRI funding for the City’s Market Center is intertwined, even dependent on the Spring City part of the project, Dr. Flagg told The Chronicle, in what amounts to a combined $6.2 million package, he said, — even while Spring City still is not ready to begin its portion.
“We are as certain as we can be,” he said, that Spring City will succeed with the tax breaks. “They’ll be ready to move very quickly,” he said, to complete Phase One, presuming that happens, he said.
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