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City ready to move on Washington Park Lakehouse eatery |
Times Union Newspaper First published: Sunday, January 8, 2006 ---Brian Nearing
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A year-old plan to remake the Washington Park Lakehouse into a full-service restaurant and banquet hall may finally be starting to cook. General Services Commissioner Bill Bruce said Thursday that things should begin moving this spring now that Park Playhouse has decided to stay at the 900-seat amphitheater outside the lakehouse for at least another season The local theater company has presented free plays at the lake house -- near the park entrance at Madison and New Scotland avenues -- for 17 summers, drawing 60,000 people each year. In January 2005, a committee appointed by Mayor Jerry Jennings released a report calling for up to $6.5 million in renovations to the 1929 Spanish Revival gem, which would include enclosed waterfront dining for up to 125 people, a 200-seat banquet hall, new kitchen space, a front terrace, an expanded dock, and boat, skate and cross-country ski rentals. Bruce said with the Park Playhouse issue settled, the city expects to issue a call for interested restaurateurs to run a renovated lakehouse. That would come as welcome news to Sandra Baptie, president of the Washington Park Conservancy, who served on Jennings' committee. "It's been slow and as far as I know, nothing has been happening," she said. Common Council President Pro Tempore Richard Conti, whose Sixth Ward district includes the park, also said he's been awaiting news for months. Jennings included $200,000 for park improvements in his 2006 borrowing plan. "It's important that the council know what's going on prior to being asked to approve any bonding for a lakehouse project," Conti said. Five restaurant owners have been involved in planning with the mayor's committee, including Roger Martel, who operates the restaurant at the city's Capital Hills golf course; Don Wade, operator of the Cider House restaurant at the Orchard Creek Golf Course in Altamont; Donna and Yono Purnomo, who ran Yono's, an Indonesian restaurant; Daniel Smith, chef at Nicole's Bistro in Quackenbush Square; and Brian Palazzolo, of Classe Catering, which provides food services at the Crossings of Colonie. |
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