Brian Sharp

@SharpRoc

The future of a key Midtown parcel is uncertain as one of the site's lead developers is backing off a proposal to build a multiplex theater and other retail in the middle of the downtown property.

"We have taken a step back and re-evaluated what we want to concentrate on," said Ken Glazer, managing partner with Buckingham Properties. "We might not be as aggressive as we have been the past few years."

Glazer isn't ruling out a back-up role on what is called Parcel 5, or what passers-by on East Main Street would see as the center of Midtown. But Buckingham's decision could open up the bidding to others who might have otherwise been discouraged.

The city offered the central Midtown parcel for development last month, and recently extended the deadline for developers to respond into mid-January. In doing so, the city said it wanted to allow ample time for responses given the holiday season. Though yet to have a conversation with Glazer, Del Smith, the city's neighborhood and business development commissioner, said of Buckingham: "I fully anticipate they may not respond."

When the city offered up the property, it was expected that Buckingham and partner Morgan Management would be the first, and possibly the only to submit a proposal. A campus-type plan that encompassed the remaining unclaimed Midtown lots and dubbed The Grove was championed by the family and Buckingham patriarch, Larry Glazer, who died Sept. 5 when his small plane crashed into the ocean on Sept. 5, and sank miles off the northern coast of Jamaica. His wife, and Ken Glazer's mother, Jane Glazer, also died in the accident. They were 68.

The idea for The Grove "is still out there," Ken Glazer said. But "it might evolve with a different developer."

Buckingham's focus remains on the Tower at Midtown and the potential to develop an adjacent parcel at Broad and Clinton (the former Wegmans location) as part of a cohesive retail, office and residential project. The company has partnered with Morgan Management on the Midtown, Xerox and Legacy (formerly Bausch+Lomb) towers. Morgan also has been part of The Grove.

Buckingham, meanwhile, has a host of other projects on its plate, from the Edge of the Wedge complex on South Clinton Avenue to the massive redevelopment of the former Genesee Hospital site in a project called Alexander Park.

Check back at DemocratandChronicle.com on Friday for more on development in the Midtown section of downtown.

BDSHARP@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/sharproc