– Albany

Glorious and gorgeous Kiernan Plaza soon will be empty. So what should come next?

That's the question many are asking now that Bank of America intends to pull its employees from the landmark former train station. The building, one of Albany's architectural treasures, will be empty for the first time since its celebrated restoration 23 years ago — and its future is unclear.

Longtime residents remember that Union Station, which closed as a train depot in 1968, fell into disrepair in the 1970s. The scene, we're told, was mightily forlorn: Sunlight and rain pouring into the building's magnificent hall. Plants growing through the roof.

But, hey — at least the pigeons were happy!

The building's status as a pigeon playland ended in 1986, when Norstar Bank and Peter Kiernan spent millions on a renovation that delighted the city. The building has housed bank employees ever since.

But Bank of America will leave early next year.

And Gramercy Capital Corp., the downstate investment company that owns Kiernan Plaza, has given few hints as to its plans.

But if the company is willing to listen to suggestions, Capital Region residents have plenty to give. Here are a few of the ideas we've heard:

Public market

Oh, boy. Wouldn't it be some kind of wonderful to have a genuine food market in Albany? Imagine vendors for produce, meat and seafood hawking their goods to downtown workers.

The idea may not be too far-fetched: A group in Portland, Ore., considered that city's Union Station for a public market, but eventually concluded the $40 million in likely renovation costs were too much to bear.

But Albany's Union Station is, of course, already renovated. So perhaps conversion costs wouldn't be so daunting?

Still, keeping a public market in business is no easy task. Just ask people in another Porltand, the one in Maine, where the Portland Public Market closed in 2006, after less than a decade in business. That building, funded by a deep-pocketed foundation, even was built to specifically house a market.

In this age of supercenters, the market never found enough of an audience to survive. And, ultimately, the market was converted to an office building — just like Kiernan Plaza.

Retail arcade

This is a suggestion from, among others, Mayor Jerry Jennings, who seemingly wants retail outlets in just about every empty downtown building. And for good reason: Downtown Albany is nearly devoid of shopping venues.

Kiernan Plaza presents challenges for retail shops. The building has no ground-level windows, and its Beaux Arts facade isn't the appropriate place for a mammoth sign. A person would pretty much have to enter the building to be aware of its stores.

Yet Susan Holland, executive director of Historic Albany Foundation, believes the building could be hospitable for destination retail, making the building an arcade, of sorts, like in Saratoga Springs.

Union Station stores would benefit from downtown's huge population of office workers, although some shoppers would probably find the location out of the way. And the building does have its very own parking garage.

Maybe it could be a Nordstrom department store? Or a Harrods?

Holland, who admittedly loves to shop, envisions a Union Station shoe store. Or a bookstore. "I think you could generate enough publicity to get people in there," Holland said. "It would be amazing."

Train station

This is the suggestion made by Capital Region nostalgists, along with those who consider the train station in Rensselaer sterile, architecturally unimpressive, or inconvenient.

Yet that station opened just seven years ago — at a cost of $53.1 million. Will there really be the political will to move the station? And how would that go over in Rensselaer?

But then again, it's hard to argue that the building wouldn't make a good train depot. "I'm definitely in favor of it going back to being a train station," said Daniel Sanders of Harris A. Sanders Architects. "It's a great location for downtown businesses and for people arriving into Albany."

Others suggest Kiernan Plaza could be the centerpiece of a Capital Region commuter rail or light-rail system. And that sounds awesome. But even the most extreme optimist would have to concede that such a system would take at least a decade to build.

And if Kiernan Plaza is left vacant for that long, the pigeons may return to their roost.

Convention center

This is perhaps the most frequent suggestion we've heard, most likely from people who'd rather not see more than $200 million spent on building a new convention center, as is planned.

But seriously, people?! Have you ever been to a convention? Modern-day convention centers are HUUUG-GAH (to paraphrase a certain car dealer). The convention center planned in downtown Albany is set to have a 60,000-square-foot exhibit hall, a 25,000-square-foot multi-use room and a 22,350-square-foot ballroom.

Plus, there are plans for spin-off development (hotels and a parking garage) that might be hard to squeeze onto Broadway.

Gavin Donohue, chairman of the Albany Convention Center Authority board, notes another complication: The convention center, he said, needs to be connected to the Times Union Center, to amplify its appeal and usable space.

"It's an important part of Albany that needs to be used," Donohue said of Kiernan Plaza. "But it won't work as a convention center."

Office building

We know, we know. It's boring. Lacks imagination. Hardly the kind of project to titillate the masses.

It may, however, be the most practical solution — for the obvious reason that the building has been a successful office building for 23 years. So why can't it continue to be so?

The building has drawbacks for office use. There's a lot of unusable space, and heating costs are said to be fearsome. Yet if there's a company out there looking for an impressive headquarters, Union Station certainly fits the bill.

Actually, the best use of Kiernan Plaza might be a combination of some of the above uses — a mixed-use structure, to use a term popular with city planners.

Why not an office building with ground-level retail? Why not have a once-a-week farmers market in the main hall? Why not tuck a museum, another popular suggestion, into a corner of the structure?

Everyone, no matter what they want for the building, seems to agree on one thing it needs: Greater public access. Bank of America limited access to the building to the point where many in the Capital Region haven't stepped inside for years, or at all.

"It was really one of the great gateways to Albany when it was a train station," said architectural historian Ned Pratt. "It's a shame that it can't still function that way."

Chris Churchill can be reached at 454-5442 or at cchurchill@timesunion.com. Read his real estate blog at http://blog.timesunion.com/realestate.