Some details regarding some of the downtown development projects:
http://www.ithaca.com/news/article_9...9bb2963f4.html
Ithaca: Development projects expected in 2012
By Dialynn Dwyer
reporter@ithacatimes.com
The Women's Community Building and the old Challenge Industries building will be demolished this year to make way for two new housing development projects in downtown Ithaca. The two projects are only a slice of the number of projects that will be worked on in 2012, according to Director of City Planning JoAnn Cornish. A third major housing project - the Collegetown Terrace Apartment project - has already begun along State Street. The fourth major project, the Cayuga Green project, is stalled without financing. But the four different housing projects will potentially add a range of housing to the downtown area, and some will fill the great need in the downtown area for mid-range housing that was discovered by the Danter Study in Oct. 2011.
The project taking place at the Women's Community Building -
Breckenridge Apartments - is planned to be a six-story, multi-use building that will add 50 brand new affordable housing units to downtown, which Cornish said are greatly needed and will make a huge difference to the downtown area. The project has been in the works for two years and is expected to take 18 months to complete with demolition beginning in March.
The Seneca Way project to be constructed in place of the Challenge Industries building will also be mixed use building. It will contribute 38 mid-range units. The process for getting approval for the project took about a year since the time the application was submitted, according to Cornish, and with demolition beginning in the spring is expected to take between 18-24 months to complete. The five story project required a height variance among others, which according to Cornish was a controversial issue.
"It's adjacent to the East Hill Historic District, so a lot of neighbors were really concerned about the height. So that slowed it up a little bit," said Cornish.
...
The Collegetown Terrace project, a three-year project already underway, will continue work on phase one of three through 2012. There will 16 buildings constructed total, with 12 being constructed in phase one. The hope, according to Cornish, is to have those first buildings completed for student move in day in the fall as the focus of the project is graduate student housing.
The Cayuga Green project will provide yet another form of housing to the downtown area- luxury, high-end apartments- changing from the developer's original plan to create condominiums when funding could not be secured.
"We've been dealing with this for I think probably at least five years," said Cornish.
The project recently received approval from the city to have mixed use on the first floor of the building, but funding still remains the hang up.
"We've been working with them," said Cornish, "and they feel like they're very close to getting their funding, but of course until that happens it doesn't feel like anything's going on, and we don't bank on it happening until that funding comes through. So that's been in the works for a long time. They have secured a tenant for the ground floor and I know that they're very anxious to start. But again, until we see the funding come through, we're always very cautiously optimistic."
(more in link)