BY PAUL MITCHELL
North Country This Week

CANTON – The Village Of Canton will be seeking state funding to pay for the cost of demolition and cleanup of the dilapidated Midtown Plaza property off Miner Street if and when that property changes ownership.

The village board agreed Wednesday evening to apply for two separate Restore NY grants, $10 million and $2 million applications. If the village is awarded the grant or grants, that funding will be used to pay a demolition bill.

Canton Mayor Michael Dalton read a prepared statement outlining the proposal.

“For many years the village has been working to redevelop the Midtown Plaza that is in a state of serious disrepair. In recent years, and with the vision of SUNY Canton’s president [Zvi Szafran], the village has applied for DRI funding that includes the property,” he stated.

“The plan has been to turn this dilapidated plaza, at the center of our downtown, into a mixed-use development offering diverse housing options and an Entrepreneurship Center that will anchor the project. This will ignite innovation, spur the creation of new businesses, and ensure enduring economic and community growth,” Dalton continued.

The plan for the area has been well established and the anchor for the project, the SUNY Canton Entrepreneurship Center, has received approximately $4 million to date.

“The village is wrapping up negotiations with the current owners to acquire the property for redevelopment and to allow for us to pursue grants,” said Dalton.

The current property owners are Garry Cohen and Vern Green.

“Each application through the years required that we obtain ‘site control’ from the owners, and for a two-year period a purchase option existed. These options expired during the time of Covid and were not able to be renewed,” he added.

“Several months ago, new grant opportunities arose that target properties like the Midtown Plaza for redevelopment. The village has taken a hard look at this area of our village and decided to undertake negotiations with the owners of the properties to gain control of six properties for the specific purpose of aiding development that will be beneficial to the area,” Dalton noted. “We as a municipality have determined that this development will create jobs, provide needed infrastructure and will stimulate our local economy.”

A public hearing on the Restore NY grant applications will be held Jan. 25 at 5:30 p.m. at the Canton Municipal Building.

“This is an important piece of what we do to make this space better,” Dalton said.

The Jubilee supermarket closed its door in the Midtown Plaza in 2000 and Rite Aid departed shortly after, building a new store, now Walgreens, on East Main Street.