Heading into the spring, it looks like the Village Solars project off of Warren Road in Lansing has made some pretty substantial progress with its second phase.
Building “D”, which contains 12 apartments, is essentially complete inside and out, though not yet occupied.
Building “G/H”, which holds 18 units, is fairly far along from the outside – cement boards have been attached to most of the east face, and some more wood siding has been applied to the west face. Exterior details like balcony railings and trim boards have yet to be installed.
Building “E” is topped out, and the roof rafters are being sheathed with Huber ZIP panels. The stairwells are still being framed out. Windows have been fitted in most of the rough openings on the first and second floors, but have yet to reach the third floor. Housewrap covers most of the plywood walls, with the exception of the stairwells. “E” will have 11 apartments.
From observation, it looks like Lifestyle Properties (the Lucente family) could start renting out Building “D” tomorrow if they wanted, Building “G/H” towards the end of the Spring (possibly Mid-July from the Craigslist posting), and have Building “E” ready for occupancy before the semester starts. Phase two of the 174-unit apartment project is being built with a $6 million loan from Tompkins Trust. Phase one’s 36 units opened last year.
EDIT: From Rocco Lucente the younger – “We will have our first move ins for 1067 Warren Road (Building D) on May 1st. The other two buildings are currently scheduled for June 15th and July 15th completion. We did get our Certificate of Occupancy for Building D around two weeks ago, but with the various cleaning and landscaping work we set our target for May 1st.”
No loans have been secured yet for the three later phases, and plans are still in the works for an addition across Village Place that would bring the total number of new apartments to over 300.
Ithacating in Cornell Heights 
While it’s nice to see more rental housing being created, this seems more like sprawl and not very useful. Who exactly is going to live here? It’s pretty far from Ithaca and not served by public transit, and it’s unworkable for Cornell grad students since they can’t drive to campus (due to the scarcity of parking).
I’ve heard that while there is a sizable student population, many of the tenants are actually workers at the office park, Borg Warner and other nearby businesses.