BY PETE DEMOLA, The Times Union

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — Seven years after a deadly fire ripped through a pair of apartment buildings across from City Hall, the city is poised to hand over the vacant lot for redevelopment as a small park.

Officials are planning to reinvent the land where four people died in 2015 as a community gathering space.

“We need more green space downtown,” Ray Gillen, chairman of the Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority, said. “As more people move downtown, we need more places to recreate.”

Metroplex will ask a City Council subcommittee on Monday for a five-year no-cost lease on the city-owned parcels located in the heart of downtown.

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