BY JIMMY LAWTONNorth Country This Week

CANTON — Fences are up and preliminary groundwork for the demolition of Midtown Plaza is expected to begin soon, and wrap up in October, according to Canton officials.

Canton Director of Economic Development Leigh Rodriguez confirmed that fencing was placed around the buildings to prepare for demolition and abatement which is expected to begin in mid-September.

Building on that is some good news. She said the village has received approval to use grant funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the demolition and said some of that funding can also be used for rebuilding.

The demolition is the first major step toward redeveloping the long-vacant plaza at 19 Miner Street. Mayor Mike Dalton said the progress was welcomed as the village worked to fill the void left in the plaza since 2000 when Jubilee closed.

Dalton, who has served as mayor for a decade, said it’s been a priority for as long as he’d been on the board and it’s great to see things moving forward.

The property is slated to be redeveloped by the Vecino Group as a mixed-use project featuring residential, commercial and retail space.

Plans for the redevelopment have evolved but the more than $25 million project still includes apartments and an innovation center.

The Midtown Plaza project calls for a three-story, mixed-use building totaling approximately 71,500 square feet on a site made up of six parcels that will be consolidated into a single property. 

The building will contain 60 residential units, including 51 one-bedroom and nine two-bedroom apartments, along with a 10,000-square-foot Innovation Center on the ground floor to be operated by SUNY Canton and 2,500 square feet of commercial or retail space. 

The project complies with the mixed-use district's zoning requirements for lot size, setbacks, impervious surface coverage, building height and parking. 

The site will use existing municipal water and sanitary sewer services, with wastewater redirected to the Village sewer system.

At a planning board meeting last year, the village received praise from at least one citizen who commended officials for taking actions on what’s been one of the village’s largest eyesores downtown.

The history

The village officially acquired six parcels at 19 Miner Street from Garry Cohen, a New York City businessman, in May for $1.28 million. The plaza had largely sat vacant since 2000, when its anchor tenant, Jubilee supermarket, closed. Rite Aid, which later occupied space at the plaza, left in 2018.

The village purchased the plaza property in 2023 and issued a request for proposals that was awarded to Vecino, which is expected to own and manage the new development.

A fair amount of public funding has been dedicated to the projected including a $2 million Restore NY for demolition, abatement and reconstruction; $2 million in NY Forward funding for Vecino’s project; $1.5 million in NYPA power proceeds funding for Vecino; $300,000 from National Grid for Vecino’ $2.6 million earmarked by HUD for the SUNY Canton College Foundation and $1.35 million from Empire State Development.

The $27.75 million Midtown Plaza project is proposed to receive a 33-year PILOT agreement, beginning with three years of $20,000 annual payments followed by payments starting at $49,200 in the fourth year and increasing over the remaining term. 

The PILOT payments would be distributed among the Village, Town, County and Canton Central School District based on each jurisdiction’s pro-rata share of property taxes, meaning the distribution could change from year to year. 

The property currently has an assessed value of about $746,000 but generates no property-tax revenue because it is owned by the Village of Canton. 

Under the proposed PILOT, payments to the taxing jurisdictions would total nearly $160,000 during the first five years and more than $2 million over the full 33-year term.