What’s to become of the South Street Community Pavilion?

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

On Nov. 2, developer Sonny Bonacio’s Spring City Development group purchased from the City of Glens Falls the South Street parking lot where the Farmers Market takes place seasonally on Saturday mornings.

The price was $255,000.

The Farmers Market will still be able to use the site at least through next year, Mayor Bill Collins told The Chronicle.

The land is where Spring City plans to build Phase Two of its “Market Square” project, including a five-story, 70-unit townhouse building facing Elm Street and a mixed use building facing South Street.

The project also encompasses Spring City’s renovation and reuse of the adjacent Sandy’s Clam Bar building, which Mr. Bonacio already bought, and the former Hot Shots and “Incubator” buildings across Elm Street that Spring City is under contract to buy from the city.

It all hinges on hoped-for tax credits from New York State, to be announced early in 2024.

Mayor Collins said the purchase of “the pavilion lot” is expected to help with the application for tax credits, deemed critical for that part of the South Street project.

The mayor said, “If for some reason Mr. Bonacio doesn’t get his tax credit in February or March, then we would just get it back for the same price,” the Mayor said.

Mayor Collins said the South Street project schedule is such that the Farmers Market can remain at its current site next summer, in 2024, “with the current rental arrangement of $1,000 per year,” a cost that he estimates is $50 annually for each of the Market’s 40-plus vendors.

“If for some reason Mr. Bonacio doesn’t get his tax credit in February or March, then we would just get it back for the same price,” the Mayor said.

For now, he said, the City is leasing the property back for $1 a year.

What about the pavilion?

The pavilion that the City built for the farmers market when it moved to South Street was not part of the sale.

The Mayor said, “When we showed (Spring City Development) the property, we said we might want the pavilion. Mr. Bonacio said, ‘Whatever you want to do. Take it, if you can.’ He doesn’t want the pavilion, he would just take it down.”

Mayor Collins said the pavilion — “or a section of that” — is being eyed for possible use by the volunteer committee looking at turning the City-owned former Glens Falls Tennis and Swim Club and adjacent property into a park.

“I said sure, it sounds nice,” Mayor Collins says. “We’re not there yet. We haven’t done anything with it. If that went to a park, I don’t think there’s any problem. I can’t just go giving it to an outside organization.

“I’ve heard rumors, people are suggesting all sorts of things but nobody’s talked to me about it. We own the pavilion, I don’t have any plans for the pavilion. I would try to entertain any reasonable request, if I could help some group.

“You are hearing it from the horse’s mouth, we have no solid plans for that Pavilion, nor anything else.”

Eric Unkauf offers Shirt Factory for Farmers Market; eyes pavilion too

Chronicle Managing Editor Cathy DeDe writes: “If the Farmer’s Market is considering leaving Glens Falls I certainly would like to throw the Shirt Factory out as an option,” its owner Eric Unkauf told The Chronicle in an email conversation.

He said he reached out to Farmers Market president Tom Wells after the group issued their exasperated press release on the morning of the Market Center groundbreaking offering.

“I appreciate the fact that these people grow the food I eat,” Mr. Unkaus says. “That is why the Shirt Factory does not charge any fees to bonafide farmers for our events, nor would it charge fees to the Farmers Market to use the facilities here. If I can help in some way, I will.”

Mr. Unkauf said, “I have been talking on and off about the potential to move the pavilion since the idea of making it surplus was first announced” with the City’s plans for the Market Center and Market Square projects on South and Elm Streets.

“The pavilion would need to get cut into multiple sections for moving and then reassembled, potentially into a few shorter structures,” Mr. Unkauf envisions. He noted the Farmers Markets in Saratoga and Troy don’t even have permanent cover in the warm months.

“Farmers by definition are very practical. They didn’t ask for something elaborate (like a glass building or a birch leaf),” he wrote, “only something functional that could house their market and be used year-round, and they didn’t get either.”

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