June 13: Public update on GF’s South St. plans by Mayor & Sonny Bonacio

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

On Monday, June 13, Mayor Bill Collins and developer Sonny Bonacio will present their plans for the South Street-Elm Street overhaul and the Market Center that are core to Glens Falls’s use of the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant awarded in 2016 by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The Monday, June 13, meetings will take place from noon to 2 p.m. at Crandall Public Library and from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Park Theater.

“Even without the parking garage,” Mayor Collins said, referring to controversial plans for the Elm Street lot (see separate box), “we are looking at $38 million in development.

“South Street is the last major corridor of Glens Falls to be upgraded. It’s why we got the DRI money to begin with.”

The mayor said they hope to bring the DRI projects in July to the Planning Board, which typically meets the first Tuesday of the month, thus July 5.

The centerpiece is the Market Center to be built by the City where the OTB parlor stood. It will house the Glens Falls Farmer’s Market and an events center.

Designed by Envision Architects of Troy, the Market Center is proposed as an open air building shaped like a birch leaf and featuring hinged, slotted “walls” that can lift up as shades in the warm months or be lowered as protection from the elements in winter. There would be a performance stage in the back south corner of the lot, delivery access for trucks, and landscaping that takes the place of the prior “pocket park” DRI plan.

Mr. Bonacio, of Saratoga Springs, selected by Glens Falls to develop much of the DRI project, plans to construct or redevelop five buildings, under the entity “Spring City Development of Glens Falls.” Mr. Bonacio’s projects are:

• 46 Elm Street: Purchase and renovate the white long-vacant warehouse building once envisioned as a business incubator. It will connect with the Market Center, adding flexible indoor vendor and events space and commercial kitchen on the first floor.
• Hot Shots: Purchase and renovate the former bar for mixed residential-office-commercial use.
• Sandy’s Clam Bar: Renovate building that Mr. Bonacio bought separately, not as part of the DRI, also for mixed use.
• New mixed use building: At the front of the current Farmers Market-parking lot facing South Street.
• New five-story, 60- to 90-unit apartment building at the back of the current Farmers Market-parking area, parallel with Elm Street, combining market rents with sliding scale subsidies.

Preliminary drawings will be available to view, Mayor Collins said.

Info: CityofGlensFalls.com.

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