Once Renaissance Square died, it took almost no time for suburban towns to start wooing the Rochester Broadway Theatre League and its theater. And while both RBTL board chair Arnie Rothschild and Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy say they want the theater group to stay in the city, RBTL could find some suburban locations very attractive. That would be good for the chosen suburb - and very bad for the city.

This assumes, of course, that RBTL will be able to raise the money to build a new theater - and that it can afford to operate it. While Rothschild insists that it can, he has plenty of skeptics, including city officials.

But set the skepticism aside for a minute. If RBTL creates a new theater, does it matter where it is? Yes, indeed.

One of the potential sites is the former Irondequoit Mall, now being planned as a retail-hotel-restaurant-apartment complex. It's right on Route 104, and it will have plenty of parking. And its on-site hotel and restaurant would both help and benefit from an RBTL theater. Developer Scott Congel, whose proposal I've thought seems pretty iffy, must be drooling at the prospect.

Then there's what may be the ideal suburban location: Tony Costello's proposed mixed-use development in Brighton. It's near I-590, and it's only a few miles from the Thruway. And for many theater-goers in Greater Rochester, it's more convenient than downtown.

As with every development plan in this no-growth region, RBTL's decision will affect much more than the theater. A hotel adjacent to a suburban RBTL theater could compete not only with downtown hotels but, for some conventions, with the Riverside Convention Center.

If an RBTL theater spurred the development of new restaurants nearby, they would compete with existing restaurants elsewhere in Monroe County - including in downtown Rochester.

A suburban RBTL might help an individual town, but the rest of us would lose. Most especially the city.

I continue to hope that RBTL will not only stay in the city but will stay at the Auditorium Theatre - a historic building whose future would certainly be threatened if RBTL left. In a conversation last week, Rothschild repeated his insistence that staying there would not only be expensive but well nigh impossible. The requirements are so big - kick out the back end of the theater, expand the lobby, create more bathrooms, add more seats - that the theater would have to go dark for two years, Rothschild said.

And that, he said, would put RBTL out of business.

Is it impossible for RBTL to stay at the Aud? City officials say they'll pay for an architectural and engineering study of the building. That would be a good start; we need to settle this question, and soon.

Bit by bit: Meanwhile, there is really good news about downtown development. Despite the economy and the region's flat population, housing is growing.

According to the Rochester Downtown Development Corporation, 3185 residential units are occupied or under construction downtown, with an estimated 4778 residents. The individual developments range from Corn Hill Landing, with 219 units, to the very small: two under-construction projects flanking the Little Theatre on East Avenue, one with two apartments, the other a single-family, owner-occupied unit.

Many of the projects are rescuing valuable old commercial buildings. And these are not wild, speculative developments. They're being snapped up quickly, says RDDC president Heidi Zimmer-Meyer.

Individually, these are not big projects like Renaissance Square. But their importance is hard to exaggerate. They put people on the streets. They generate activity, which boosts the perception of downtown as a vibrant, "cool" place to work, says Zimmer-Meyer - and that is already luring new office development.

And when the units under construction are completed, the downtown population will be almost 5000 - considered an important tipping point. "The general rule," says Zimmer-Meyer, "is that 5000 to 10,000, and retail gets interested."