Troy

The city will give the developers of a movie theater complex exclusive rights for 30 months to build at 1 Monument Square.

The City Council is set to grant preliminary approval Wednesday for the fourth attempt to develop the 1.2-acre site where City Hall stood before it was razed to encourage downtown development.

"There seems to be momentum for it," said Councilman Robert Doherty, whose district includes Monument Square.

The roughly $18 million project proposed by Bow Tie Cinemas and Bonacio Construction is expected to bring 10,000 movie fans to the downtown core weekly after the theaters open for the 2018 holiday season.

There's no organized opposition to the project, but some of his constituents are concerned about its impact on parking, Doherty said.

"The issue of parking needs to be addressed," he said.

The project has on-site parking in its plans, and "the city is continuing to look at parking as a whole across the whole downtown district," said John Salka, a spokesman for Mayor Patrick Madden.

A city parking study found that the current parking lots and garages downtown are underutilized, Salka said.

The land development proposal going before the City Council calls for 43,000 square feet of retail space containing a movie theater with eight to 10 movie screens, parking for up to 130 vehicles and infrastructure improvements.

The city is expected to receive $600,000 for the site.

The agreement with BTP Monument Square LLC and Bonacio Construction calls for Bow Tie to open the project between River Street and the Hudson River with Bonacio the contractor.

The LDA would identify Bow Tie and Bonacio as the preferred developers with 30 months exclusivity for the site. The three previous projects called for the construction of apartments at 1 Monument Square.

In 2011, Nigro Companies and partners proposed a $31.5 million project that the city ended up rejecting because it had housing for low-income renters rather than market rate residences in what officials consider the premier downtown site. This was followed in 2013 by Judge Development Corp.'s $50 million plan for market-rate housing. The city ended this project over financial issues. The third proposal came in 2014 from Kirchhoff Companies, which proposed a $27 million project. The firm pulled out in 2016 blaming the city for failing to disclose site issues and dragging out the planning review.

Doherty is to meet Wednesday with Deputy Mayor Monica Kurzejeski to discuss downtown parking.

The City Council is expected to vote when it meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall. The final vote could come at its May meeting. After that the project developers would move through the city planning review process.

kcrowe@timesunion.com • 518-454-5084 • @KennethCrowe