TROY – The city and Rensselaer County have reached agreement on moving ahead with the delayed construction of the $10 million South Troy Industrial Road project, Mayor Patrick Madden said Wednesday night.

“The terms have been agreed to and the checks have been cut. I anticipate a closing in a matter of days,” Madden, a Democrat, told an audience of about 125 people attending his fifth state-of-the-city address at Loft 433 in the Hedley Building.

The city has been waiting since September for County Executive Steve McLaughlin and the county Industrial Development Agency to sign closing documents to allow the city to build the road across two sections of county-owned property near Main Street. McLaughlin had held off signing, saying he had concerns the road could affect development of county-owned property north of the Rensselaer County Jail and whether the road would even be built.

“We believe that we have an agreement that will allow the city to follow through on their to begin this project which is 25 years in the making. At the same time, the county and the city reached a firm agreement for an end date to the project,” said Richard Crist, county director of operations and a spokesman for McLaughlin, a Republican.

The city has agreed to complete the project by June 2021, Madden said. The county had concerns about the project being completed after 25 years of false starts, the mayor said.

The city will go out to bid in “a matter of weeks,” Madden said. This will open the way to building the road and removing tractor-trailers from South Troy’s residential neighborhoods.

Residents launched a letter-writing campaign to try to convince McLaughlin to sign off on the project so they wouldn’t have to bear the fumes and vibrations from the heavy truck traffic.

City Hall search

Also Wednesday, the mayor said the city will launch a search for a new City Hall site this year.

The city is renting space on the fifth floor of the Hedley Building at 433 River St. for city government, its second rental location since moving out of the former City Hall site at 1 Monument Square nearly a decade ago so it could be razed to encourage downtown development. The city is working on its fifth attempt to redevelop the 1.2-acre site between the square and the Hudson River.

“Since the ill-fated decision to demolish our last City Hall, our seat of government has endured a nomadic existence. This has proven problematic in a number of ways when issues of broad concern need to be debated and discussed,” Madden said.

The city hopes to hire a real estate consultant “to assist in assessing operational needs, financial capacity and possible locations,” Madden said. The city has strengthened its financial situation enough that it can now consider owning instead of renting space for its government, he said.

Madden said this move is not a commitment to building a new City Hall in the near future, but a step toward creating a new center for government operations.

There’s been an ongoing debate about building a new City Hall ever since city government moved from 1 Monument Square to the former Verizon Building at 1776 Sixth St. and then to its current location in the Hedley Building.

Council President Carmella Mantello named a committee in 2016 to consider possible locations. The issue has repeatedly been raised in city elections each year since the move from 1 Monument Square.

The Troy Record Building, the Italian Community Center and the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall’s bank office space have all been considered possible locations for city government. But each had its drawbacks, ranging from costs to convert buildings to government use and inadequate size.