Ithacating in Cornell Heights

Maplewood has not had the best of luck during the construction. A wet fall, and an unusually wet and cold spring have really dampened efforts to move the project along at a clip that the development team would have liked. Supply issues (framing walls) and concerns from subcontractors about steady, non-weather interrupted work have also made things more complicated. The developer (EdR Trust, with local project representative Scott Whitham of Whitham Consulting) approached the town of Ithaca with a request to extend the working hours again from 7 AM to 10:30 PM for interior work, on top of the four-hour extension (from 9 AM – 5 PM to 7 AM – 7 PM) and the Saturday 8 AM – 4 PM hours previously granted.

It did not go over well. After getting a tongue lashing from members of the board about incompetence, the planning board did offer a partial concession to 9 PM on a 4-3 vote. As a result, barring no further major issues, most of the units are expected to be delivered in July, though some of the later-scheduled townhouse strings will likely not be complete before August. Ostensibly, there’s a fear that the units won’t be ready in time for incoming Cornell graduate and professional students, in which case EdR will incur the substantial cost of putting them up in a hotel, as some of the Collegetown developers had to do a couple of years ago (325 Eddy’s opening was especially rough). The current plan is three phases of move in, on July 1st, July 31st and August 20th.

From what I’ve heard, at least half the units are spoken for in the 441-unit, 872-bed development. Advertisements have been showing up pretty regularly on websites like Craigslist, as well as their own website.

Walking around the site, construction is in just about every stage imaginable, from framing to sheathing to fit-outs to exterior siding and even trim work on the units facing Mitchell Avenue. There have been some changes in the plans, and I’d argue for the better – more color variations in the apartment buildings and the townhouse strings. The southwest corner building on Mitchell was initially supposed to be shaded of blue, but is finished with red fiber cement panels, and the panels on one of the gabled “Ht” strings next to the Belle Sherman Cottages. The apartments also show varying brick and panel ensembles, from navy panels and red brick, light grey panels and maroon brick, dark grey panels with tan brick….it makes for a more colorful and arguably more attractive site.

Quick aside, a second project webcame has been installed. This one looks over the three apartment blocks on the northern (Maple Avenue) end of the site. Link below, along with the southward camera.

For project background and planning, click here.

For a site plan breakdown, click here.

For a construction timeline, click here.

Webcam link 1 here (updated ~15 minutes).

Webcam link 2 here (New! updated ~15 minutes).