Mantello calls for Monument Square committee
Request comes after fourth failed effort to develop former city hall site
The president of the City Council is calling on Mayor Patrick Madden to form a special committee to consider the future of the former riverfront site of City Hall after a fourth proposal for the vacant lot at One Monument Square fell through late last week.
In an email to the Democratic mayor, Republican council President Carmella Mantello asked that Madden form a committee that would include “residents, business people and others with expertise in the development of vacant property in our city.” She suggested Madden appoint five members to the group, with the GOP-controlled council also choosing five.
“This bipartisan committee I believe will help us move the Monument Square project forward in an efficient and effective manner,” Mantello said.
Similar committees were used in soliciting and screening proposals in past efforts, but members of those groups were chosen by the sitting mayor. An advisory group appointed by Madden recommended the Bow Tie proposal over a plan for a hotel and restaurant submitted by Troy-based Redburn Development.
In an emailed statement Monday afternoon, Madden’s spokesman, John Salka, said the mayor is taking other steps he hopes will finally lead to a successful project on the site.
“Currently, the administration is carefully examining a number of options, including River-
front Park access and expansion, possibly in conjunction with staged development, to prepare the site for future public or private development,” Salka wrote. “We will continue to explore options to utilize the available grant assistance to improve the One Monument Square site for future development opportunities.”
One Monument Square, which has been vacant since City Hall was demolished in 2011 because of structural damage caused by flooding along the Hudson River in 2006, fell back into city hands after Bow Tie Cinemas abandoned plans it had with Bonacio Development to build a $24 million, 10-screen cineplex on the site. Bow Tie specifically cited legal action filed by Judge Development Corp., which owns buildings on either side of the site and was one of the previous developers to take a crack at the project.
Among the issues Mantello suggested for discussion by the committee are existing obstacles to developing the site and how to overcome them, as well as setting a practical timeframe for taking new proposals for the site. She also proposed the city undertake a cleanup of the site, including new fencing, clean fill and other needed improvements
“In the short term, I am recommending the city administration, with council support, clean up the existing site so that it is not an eyesore to those who work and travel in the downtown,” she wrote.
The appointment of special committees is included in Section C-18 of the city charter, allowing the council to unilaterally create a group “to study and report on any matter of interest to the Council, provided such matter is not clearly within the purview of a standing committee.” The charter also asserts that such a committee be made up solely of council members and chosen by the council, with at least one minority party member included among that membership.
Judge, whose 2012 deal for the site was cancelled by the city a year later, after questions arose about the accuracy of financial information in his application, claimed in his legal action that the city botched the environmental review for the Bow Tie project and needs approval from the state Legislature to dispose of what he argued is city parkland.
Judge has been critical of the demolition of City Hall and its impact on his neighboring buildings since 2011, claiming earlier this year the Bow Tie project would have left the city unable to extend sewer service farther south along Front Street — which runs behind One Monument Square — to properties he owns. City officials disputed Judge’s interpretation of project plans, however, saying the existing line ends at the southern boundary of the city-owned property, allowing for it to be extended as needed to connect to additional buildings.
The latest development effort also drew the ire of a grassroots group, We Care About the Square, formed in 2015 in response to a planned mixed-use development proposed for the site by Kirchhoff Development, a downstate company that abandoned its plans in 2016. The downtown group argued the Bow Tie project did not include sufficient parking, provide sufficient public access to the Hudson River or fit with the historic character of the surrounding neighborhood and was an inappropriate use of more than $3.8 million in public funds committed to the project for nearly a decade.
We Care About the Square also claimed the developers went back on several pledges made to an advisory group that reviewed the latest proposals, specifically objecting to the expansion of the original plan from nine to 11 screens, taking up “nearly every available square foot of the site,” as well as a contemporary design using rainscreen materials “that have no place in downtown Troy.”
The Bow Tie project was also tied to a proposal by Bonacio and Bow Tie to redevelop the historic American Theater just up River Street from Monument Square, next door to the Bonacioowned Dauchy Building. The $3 million renovation of that building is expected to proceed, however, with more than $775,000 in state funding awarded for that project in January through Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Restore New York Communities Initiative.