Woolworth Building renovation still ways away

The process for finding the money for the $10 million renovation of the six-story building has been slow.

The renovation project was promised $2.5 million from the state Empire State Development Corp. through the Restore New York program in September.

“The Restore monies earmarked for the project don’t really have an expiration date on them,” said Donald W. Rutherford, chief executive officer of the Watertown Local Development Corp., also known as Watertown Trust. “We’re not in any real jeopardy of losing funding in the near future.”

Developer Michael A. Treanor, who recently finished renovation of the former Bradley Building, 498 Newell St., wants to renovate the building. He said last week that the funding search is slow because of the down economy.

He is also undertaking a renovation of the Roxy Hotel in Cape Vincent, a $2.2 million that should begin soon, but hasn't started yet because of funding. Though his focus may be on getting that project going, Watertown officials are still looking forward to the Woolworth building.

“It’s still on our radar,” Mr. Rutherford said. “We’d like to get some answers in terms of progress on the building.”