ALBANY — The partners behind the proposed Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Rensselaer have offered the city of Albany $1 million annually for a decade in exchange for its support for the $280 million riverfront development, according to two people familiar with the proposal.

The offer, which also includes jobs training programs and is contingent on a vote of support from the Common Council, comes as Mayor Kathy Sheehan has told lawmakers to expect written proposals from both the Rensselaer and East Greenbush teams within days.

Once the June 30 application deadline for teams vying for a Capital Region casino license passed, the city struck an agreement with the Rensselaer and East Greenbush partnerships to jointly pay for a consultant of the city's choosing to analyze the pros and cons of each plan for the capital city.

Sheehan asked lawmakers not to endorse any project in the days leading up to the deadline after determining none of the five Capital Region suitors had released enough information for Albany to make an informed decision.

With the number of local casino teams now down to four, the work of that consultant, Will E. Cummings of Virginia-based Nathan Associates Inc., appears to be nearing completion.

Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin said Wednesday that Sheehan told her to expect written proposals by late this week or early next week.

Sheehan confirmed that the city's consultants have been in talks with the Hard Rock team as well as those behind the proposed Capital View Casino & Resort in East Greenbush, but not the team pushing the more distant Rivers Casino at Mohawk Harbor in Schenectady.

The mayor declined to comment on terms of any offers but said the city's analysis covers three broad categories: the availability of high-quality jobs, mitigation for impacts on the city's infrastructure and services, and how the projects will promote Albany's economic development.

"The city of Albany is a reservoir of employees," Sheehan said. "We have something that the casinos need."

A spokesman for the Hard Rock partnership declined to comment, as did a spokesman for the East Greenbush project backed by Saratoga Harness Racing Inc. and Churchill Downs.

Rather than financial backing, the Schenectady team is said to have focused more on jobs programs through its partnership with Schenectady County Community College, which has a satellite location in Albany.

Citing a Sept. 22 public hearing in Albany hosted by the state Gaming Commission's panel that will award the casino licenses later this year, McLaughlin said it's "time for us to make a move."

"The further down the road we get, what do we do to our leverage?" McLaughlin said.

Sheehan said she hopes to have the issued resolved by month's end.

The team behind the Rensselaer project, which includes Rochester developer David Flaum and hedge fund Och-Ziff, had initially eyed a location in Albany off Exit 23 of the Thruway but jumped to 24 acres on the other side of the river after learning only a fraction of the site was buildable.

Once the project moved out of the city, Albany was no longer guaranteed a share of the estimated $5.7 million in annual gambling revenue sharing from the state to the host community.

But the support of the capital city has been viewed as important — especially for the two closest projects — as the teams make their cases that the hoped-for economic jolt will be shared as widely as possible and in communities where it's needed most.

Councilman Ron Bailey, who represents parts of Arbor Hill and West Hill, urged his colleagues to move as quickly as Monday to pass his resolution backing the Rensselaer project — though movement that fast seems unlikely.

"Being that we're right across the river," he said, "I don't understand why we're still holding it up and not having a voice in this."

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