Contenders Elsewhere

Gossips readers know that two of the three developers who have submitted proposals for the Kaz site are Bonacio Construction and Redburn Development. What Gossips readers may not know is that last year both Bonacio and Redburn submitted proposals for the redevelopment of 1 Monument Square in Troy, a site that has been vacant since 2011 when the unloved mid-1970s concrete structure that was Troy's City Hall was demolished. The development process in Troy has been going on for a long time, and it's still not over. 

Last summer, it appeared that the successful proposal was the one from Bonacio Construction, in collaboration with Bow Tie Cinemas, to build an 11-screen movie theater on the site.

Those plans were abandoned when Bow Tie terminated its agreement with the City of Troy and initiated a lawsuit against the City alleging that the City had changed the dimensions of the site, negatively impacting the proposed multiplex's financial viability. At the beginning of March 2018, the Troy Record announced that the City planned to hold "a three-day public design charette, where participants will collaborate during a multi-day brainstorming and design program to develop a mutually agreed upon concept for the site." 

Yesterday, a reader alerted me to an article in The Alt about the proposal that had been submitted for the Troy site by Redburn Development: "Exclusive: Redburn's unsuccessful proposal for 1 Monument Square, revealed." 

The article reports that the proposal, which can be viewed in its entirety within the article and here, was released to The Alt last Friday, after a third FOIL request from the news medium.

In their decision-making process, members of the Hudson Development Corporation board are making site visits to projects completed by each of the three developers who have submitted proposals for the Kaz site: Bonacio Construction, Kearney Realty & Development, and Redburn Development. Perhaps, in evaluating the developers' suitability for the task, if they should also consider what the developers have proposed for other locations.
COPYRIGHT 2018 CAROLE OSTERINK