Saratoga Springs developer sued over cineplex
TROY, N.Y. » Initially hailed as the project that would finally fill a hole in the heart of the city and helped continue the downtown resurgence, a $24 million cineplex proposed for One Monument Square is now under attack on two separate fronts.
As a group of downtown merchants have gone public with their opposition to a proposed Bow Tie Cinema on the former riverfront site of City Hall, a local developer who has clashed with city officials in the past is now seeking to halt the project before work can begin.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in state Supreme Court, Judge Development Corp., through a pair of subsidiaries representing adjacent properties on either side of the site owned by the company, is asking a judge to negate city legislation approved in May by the City Council that signed off on a land-development deal with BTP Monument Square, a partnership between Bonacio Construction and Bow Tie. In the suit, Judge claims not only that the city has botched the environmental review process for the project, but also that the city needs approval from the state Legislature to dispose of what is claimed to be city parkland.
The case was assigned to Judge Richard McNally Jr., with the defendents — which includes the city and the City Council, as well as Bonacio, Bow Tie and BTP Monument Square — given until Oct. 25 to respond. John Salka, spokesman for Mayor Patrick Madden, said Wednesday that Madden was withholding comment until the city has been formally served with the suit. City Council President Carmella Mantello said she hopes she and fellow council members will receive a briefing after Corporation Counsel James Caruso has a chance to review the suit. Mantello did admit, however, the suit does address an issue that is not new to local officials.
“The issue of disposition of parkland has come up at this site before,” she observed, “and has not been resolved, so we need a clarification on this point.”
The city Planning Commission is already scheduled to vote on the disputed environmental review, as well as the formal site plan for the project, at its meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall. The de-veloeprs have said they hope to begin construction this fall so the theaters can open in time for the 2018 holiday season.
That vote was already expected to come amid opposition by the group We Care About the Square, which has posted an online petition calling for the project to be abandoned. The grass-roots group, formed in 2015 to oppose a previous proposal for a two-building, mixed-use development that was abandoned contentiously by the downstate developer the next spring, argues the project does not include sufficient parking, provide sufficient public access to the Hudson River or fit with the historic character of the surrounding neighborhood and is an inapprorpi-ate use of more than $3.8 million in public funds committed to the project for nearly a decade.
The group also claims the developers have gone back on several pledges made to an advisory group that reviewed the latest proposals. Specifically, the petition cites the expansion of the original plan from 9 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.”
Bonacio Development President Sonny Bonacio did not respond Wednesday to an emailed request for comment.
Judge Development is no stranger to the controversial history of One Monument Square since City Hall was demolished in 2011 because of structural damage on severe flooding along the Hudson River in 2006. The company was the second developer to take a crack at redeveloping the site, but its 2012 deal with the city fell apart the next year.
Sam Judge, president of Judge Devlopment, has also played a personal role in that history, criticizing the demolition of City Hall and its impact on his neighboring buildings and more recently saying the project would leave 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 that runs through One Monument Square ends at the southern boundary of the property, allowing for it to be extended as needed to connect to additional buildings.
Judge Development was also the city’s landlord after it moved out of One Monument Square in 2008 and into the Verizon Building on 6th Avenue. That relationship ended up in court, as well, this time with the city suing over the failure by Judge Development to meet a deadline to install an elevator in the building and make other improvements, delaying its move. Judge Developpment and the city finally agreed in July 2016 to settle the suit for $360,000.
One Monument Square would be the fourth Bow Tie Cinemas theater in the Capitol Region, joining facilities in downtown Schenectady and Saratoga Springs, as well as Wilton Mall. Bonacio and Bow Tie Cinemas teamed up previously to open Criterion Cinemas in a former Price Chopper supermarket just off Broadway, on Railroad Place, in Saratoga Springs and to renovate the theater in Wilton Mall. The Troy theater would share many of the same luxury amenities as the other area Bow Tie Cinemas, including more than 1,300 reclining seats and a full restaurant and bar.
The One Monument Square development would also be tied to a proposal by Bonacio and Bow Tie to redevelop the historic American Theater, which sits next to the Bonacio-owned Dauchy Building and is just a few doors north of the proposed cineplex oin River Street. The theater opened in the 1920s, but was screening adult films when it was closed in 2006 after police said patrons were openly engaging in sex acts. Bonacio is planning a $3 million renovation of that building that was awarded more than $775,000 in state funding in January through Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Restore New York Communities Initiative.