Development looks promising in Ithaca for the new year. From the Ithaca Journal:
A rendering of the Holiday Inn expansion looking along Cayuga Street toward the Ithaca Commons. The two-story building will be replaced by a conference center in 2013. / Provided photo
New bricks and mortar to give a 2013 growth spurt to Ithaca
Downtown, rest of city to see major development plans take shape
6:06 PM, Jan 1, 2013 |
Written by
David Hill
ITHACA — The sound of bulldozers and the sight of construction cranes will fill the downtown landscape again in 2013.
Coming along with those sights and sounds is something rare in upstate New York: A growing tax base and economy.
No fewer than seven major projects are under way or have received city planning approval:
• Collegetown Terrace: Apartments along East State/Martin Luther King Jr. Street aimed at students. It opened this summer but subsequent phases are yet to be built. The city plans a renovated intersection of State/MLK and Mitchell streets.
• Breckenridge Place: 50 new low- and moderate-income apartments on the site of the former Women’s Community Building at Cayuga and Seneca streets. Though the apartments are aimed at lower than the market rate for rent, they’ll be fully taxable. The project is under construction.
• Holiday Inn renovation: the two-story building will be replaced by a conference center, something downtown lacks and a potential draw for lucrative meetings and events.
• Seneca Way: A 38-apartment and two-office redevelopment project on the former site of Challenge Industries on East State/MLK Jr. Street. The former Challenge building has been demolished.
• Argosy Hotel: A boutique hotel just east of Seneca Way on East State/MLK Jr. Street.
• Cayuga Place second phase: 39 loft apartments in a building of 42,600 square feet. Developer Bloomfield/Schon scaled the plans down from those previously approved, making the apartments smaller but greater in number. The first phase is on Green Street across from the city’s parking garage and has retail space on the ground level.
• Hotel Ithaca Marriott: A 10-story Marriott hotel is planned for the east end of The Commons next to the Rothschild building. The hotel will be built into a triangular lot now used for parking, with the main entrance on Aurora Street and the lobby and bar area spilling onto the Commons.
• Clinton Street Apartments: Landlord and developer Jason Fane has proposed a new 36-unit apartment complex between his property at Terrace Hill and City View and the Ithaca Police Department headquarters. It’s under city review, and has prompted discussion on regulating development on steep slopes.
Another project that is under review, known as Harold’s Square, could result in a major redevelopment of a section of Commons storefronts. L Enterprises, majority-owned by brother and sister David Lubin and Enid Littman, proposed a new group of storefronts between the Home Dairy and Trader K buildings linked by a common atrium to an apartment tower rising between the Commons and the Green Street parking garage. It’s under city review.
In addition, two major public projects are in the works. The city hopes to start this spring on a $10.5 million redesign of The Commons using a combination of federal and state grants and bonds. The city is also planning a $1.3 million project to repave Elmira Road and add sidewalks, bike lanes, landscaping and drainage improvements.
Both will be disruptive, and on Elmira Road especially, some property owners have criticized the plan as unnecessary, since they will have to pay for sidewalks they may not want and half of curb installation. Commons merchants, too, will face disruptions during demolition and construction.
Other projects
Away from downtown, there a slew of other projects either under construction or in the planning phase throughout the city.
• A Fairfield Inn is under construction on Route 13 next to Manos Diner.
• Collegetown may get another large apartment building in the form of Collegetown Crossing, 307 College Ave. Plans include a GreenStar Cooperative Market in the building.
• The Iacovelli Properties apartment building on West Seneca Street between Meadow and Fulton streets is also under construction and will likely open in early spring, with 24 two-bedroom furnished apartments.
• And nearby, Planned Parenthood of the Southern Finger Lakes plans a new clinic and administrative building also between Meadow and Fulton, replacing a smaller facility on Seneca Street between Plain and Albany streets.
Still under review is Cascadilla Landing, an ambitious residential proposal on Cascadilla Creek in the vicinity of Johnson Boat Yard and the Haunt night spot. It would be the first major waterfront housing development in the city in recent memory.
• Finally, the owners of Purity Ice Cream have proposed a residential-commercial-office project wrapped around the present ice cream shop, at 700 Cascadilla St. at Meadow, though only a conceptual plan has been brought to the City Planning and Development Board.
Cascadilla Landing, an ambitious residential proposal on Cascadilla Creek in the vicinity of Johnson Boat Yard and the Haunt night spot will be under review in 2013. It would be the first major waterfront housing development in the city in recent memory. / JOHN SNYDER ARCHITECTS / PROVIDED
A Green Street side view of the proposed Harold's Square project that is still under review. The six-story apartment building is proposed at the south side of the complex, set back from The Commons. / Provided/Chaintreuil Jensen Stark
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