Albany

Omni Development Co. is floating a plan for an aquarium, an IMAX-type theater and a science museum on land currently targeted for Albany's stalled downtown convention center project — an idea that until now had been discussed informally by community activists and politicians but dismissed by some as fraught with risk and farfetched.

Omni envisions a re-purposed Albany Convention Center Authority as the project's primary developer — and says Chattanooga, Tenn., a market smaller than the Capital Region, is a case study in how it can succeed.

"We need to strengthen our cultural facilities," Omni President I. David Swawite said Tuesday. "Here's a great proposal. Let's do it, and let's figure out how to get it done sensibly and financially."

Swawite said the facility could be built through private fundraising, the state's economic development apparatus, public bonds or a combination of those — a decision that would be made once a feasibility study is conducted to determine how large it should be and what it might cost.

That study, he said, would most logically be tackled by the convention authority, which is familiar with the site, owns the land and already has access to state funding. But Swawite said his research suggests that Albany could amply support the project and that the discussion needs to begin now before the opportunity is lost.

The aquarium concept, however, was greeted with skepticism from authority brass, who have not formally voted to abandon the 300,000-square-foot convention center on the site between Broadway and the South Mall Arterial that lurched along for more than a decade.

Nor, they noted, has Omni formally approached the authority with its grand plan.

"While it's warm and fuzzy to get the TU excited about their proposal, there are some other logical and necessary steps that need take place," authority Chairman Gavin Donohue said, adding that first state lawmakers would have to fundamentally change the authority's mission. "That would be your first step — to get the local officials on board instead of the Times Union."

Mayor Jerry Jennings, once an ardent booster of the full-blown convention center, led the push last fall to scale down the foundering project or face losing the $63 million in remaining state seed money. Jennings said he met with Omni this spring to discuss Swawite's plans, but cited the lack of a market study and funding details as critical holes.

"With no money and no market study, it's not anything solid," Jennings said. "If they want to step up and privately fund it, let's go."

Others familiar with the site also questioned Omni's self-interest in promoting a massive development next to land it owns.

The current convention center proposal has stalled amid reluctance by the state to pay the $220 million price tag. And as the authority now eyes a significantly smaller design tied to Empire State Plaza and Times Union Center arena in what would likely be a new location, the tantalizing 4.4-acre footprint the authority has been assembling with state money since 2009 is drawing attention.

This month, the Times Union reported that health insurer Capital District Physicians' Health Plan is among those taking an interest in the authority's land as a possible new site for its headquarters.

That, however, sparked a protest by Omni — which owns about 1.3 adjacent acres behind the Key Bank building on South Pearl Street — that the public authority should not be competing with the private sector for development business.

Omni's land remains the largest outstanding piece of the six acres the authority needed to buy to complete its footprint — and Swawite acknowledged Tuesday that his company is also interested in attracting CDPHP to build on its property. Drawings of the aquarium development supplied by Omni show a building that Swawite said could be offices for CDPHP or another company — or eventually a hotel.

While Omni once bid to develop an earlier version of the convention center, Swawite now says the project was never really what downtown needed. But he said the aquarium proposal jibes well with the smaller convention center project.

Independently, Nancy Behrens, an educator at the Children's Museum of Science and Technology in Troy, has been trying to raise between $10,000 and $50,000 for a feasibility study on an Albany aquarium. Democratic mayoral candidate Corey Ellis has also backed the idea — though not specifically at the convention center site.

"The aquarium to me is the solution — and we can back that up. The convention center wasn't the solution," Swawite said. "It was not feasible, and people did not want to let go because we were desperate for a transformational project. ... This is a great vision, and I would do anything, and my organization would do anything that we could to help."

jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com • 518-454-5445 • @JCEvangelist_TU