Troy gets money for Proctor's redevelopment -- take 2
The state's economic development arm awarded a $3.3 million grant to the City of Troy for the redevelopment of the old Proctor's Theater, and the Chasan Building next door. From the press release:
City of Troy -- Proctor's Theatre/Office and Chasan Building Rehabilitation (Rensselaer County) -- $3,300,000
The Proctor's Theatre/Office and Chasan Building Rehabilitation project involves the rehabilitation of the Chasan Building, a vacant 30,000 square foot, three-story structure located at 70-76 Fourth Street, for retail and office space and the rehabilitation of the Proctor's Office Building, a vacant 30,000 square foot five-story structure located at 82-90 Fourth Street. Columbia Development Companies will also stabilize and remediate the Proctor's Theater, a vacant 60,000 square foot structure located at 82-90 Fourth Street. The City of Troy was awarded a grant of up to $3,300,000 in Restore New York III funding to be used for a portion of the cost to renovate two commercial buildings and stabilize a third building, including the removal, abatement and remediation of present hazardous materials. Total project cost is $14,395,394.
This is the second time money has been pledged for this project. Back in 2009, a $4 million grant was announced for preserving the Proctor's facade and demolishing the auditorium in order to build new office space. This new version of the project would "stabilize and remediate" the theater space (it's in bad shape).
Officials said yesterday the new grant is smaller because the scope of the project changed. [TU]
RPI is the current owner of the buildings. It bought the property in 2004 with the hope of developing into a high-end hotel. In 2009, a group formed in an effort to save the building as theater. Last year there was some buzz about using the building as Troy's new city hall, though it appears the city is focused on other spaces now. [RPI] [Troy Record] [Troy Record]
The theater was built in 1914 as vaudeville theater, and closed in 1977. It's on the National Register of Historic Places. [Wikipedia]
photo: CC-BY-SA-3.0/Matt H. Wade at Wikipedia
Find It
Troy Proctor's Theater
82 4th Street
Troy, NY 12180
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Comments
This is a really good thing for Troy. Serious money to restore a significant building in downtown Troy. We should all get behind this.
... said Mary on Mar 24, 2011 at 8:46 PM | link
I want to get excited about this, but it's diffucult. They were given $4M in 2009 - I haven't seen a single thing done to it during that time. Now they were given $3.3M. That's still a budget gap of over $7.1M. Where is this money going to come from? RPI seems to have lost interest in investing, and I doubt it is going to come from the city's budget.
And as much as I love theater and am involved in theater locally, I don't see this location being restored as a grand theater as a good investment. How would it compete as an artist and audience draw with established similar theaters like Proctor's in Schenectady and the Palace in Albany? The biggest obvious issue is parking. We're talking about hundreds of people needing to park in downtown Troy all at the same time.
... said Jessica R on Mar 25, 2011 at 11:22 AM | link