238 Linden Avenue Construction Update, 7/2018

22 07 2018

Might be jumping the gun a bit on this, but the fence encroachment into the street, pile driving equipment and steel/caisson tube liners on site are leading me to believe this one is in site prep.

Consider this project thr second half of a 2-for-1 package deal from developer John Novarr. Novarr and his business partner, Phil Proujansky, own a fairly large and widespread set of local properties, with the massive Collegetown Terrace project being the best known ($190 million investment, 1,250+ beds, 16 acres). Most of the rentals operate under Novarr-Mackesey Property Management. Their latest development was on behalf of Cornell, the 76,000 SF Breazzano Family Center for Business Education, which was dedicated last fall, an imposing six-story building at 209-215 College Avenue in Collegetown.

When Novarr first bought the properties that would be demolished to make way for the Breazzano, he bought a ramshackle six-bedroom house at 238 Linden Avenue for $1.35 million – this was in December 2010, before he had assembled his final, full group of properties (and realized Pat Kraft was flatly not interested in selling to him, later doing his own redevelopment at 205-07 Dryden), so the purchase of 238 Linden could be seen as a secondary purchase to give room for flexibility, and a place for construction staging in the notoriously tight spaces of inner Collegetown. In its last few years, Novarr did not rent out the house, which was in poor shape and torn down in June 2015. A redevelopment was always intended at some point, through it was only as the Breazzano plans were drafted did Novarr and Proujansky settle on a concept.

Inner Collegetown is a captive rental market – regardless of economic recessions, there will always be students willing to pay a premium to live near Cornell’s campus. The Breazzano project presented a unique opportunity – the project will serve up to 420 Executive Education students, who tend to be older, deep-pocketed, and infrequent visitors to campus, coming up for a few weeks of the year.

The new 238 Linden is designed to tap those Executive Education students who might come up more frequently, or prefer to have a second place to call home during their matriculation with the Johnson School. The project is a 13,715 square-foot building with 24 efficiency units (studios). It will be 4 stories with a habitable basement, just under 50% lot coverage, and is fully compatible with the site’s CR-4 zoning.  Each fully above-ground floor will host 5 efficiency units, with four in the partially-exposed basement. While intended for Johnson Executive Education students, it does not appear it would have provisions limiting the units to E-MBAs.

The design intent was to create a townhouse-like appearance, in form if not in function. The exterior includes fiber cement panels to complement the colors of the Breazzano, aluminum windows and a glass curtain wall with energy-efficient glazing. A number of green features are included in the project, such as LED lighting, low-water plumbing fixtures, and a sophisticated VRF high-efficency HVAC system, which uses air-source heat pumps.

Plantings, walkways, steps and retaining walls are planned, with decorative entry stair bridges and little landscaped courtyards to provide a pleasing aesthetic for the basement units. As with all inner Collegetown projects, no parking is required so long as a transportation demand management plan (TDMP) is filed and approved by city planning staff. During Site Plan Review, the project cost was estimated to be about $2 million.

The project had a pretty quick trip through the planning board – it was proposed in March, there were very few suggested aesthetic changes, and since everything conforms with the size and intent of zoning, the board was pretty comfortable with the proposal. However, while it was approved in July 2017, the project was unable to move forward because of a change in state fire codes that essentially made construction along Linden Avenue illegal for any building taller than 30 feet (and 238 Linden is 45 feet tall), because Linden is too narrow. The way around this was to petition the city Board of Public Works to treat the parking space on the street in front as a loading zone, creating a “wider” street since a fire crew would no longer have to worry about parked cars along the street frontage. This made it easier for the project to obtain a fire code variance from the state. Normally, BPW would reject this, but 238 Linden and Visum Development’s 210 Linden had already been approved when the code was changed, so they got a special, rare accommodation. Suffice it to say, any other Linden project would be difficult if not impossible under the revised state fire code.

As with all of his other projects, the architect is ikon.5 of Princeton, with local firm Trowbridge Wolf Michaels Landscape Architecture serving as the project team representatives, and T.G. Miller P.C. providing the civil engineering work. The modern design may not be to everyone’s taste, but Novarr likes the architecture firm’s work so much, he asked them to design an addition to his property in Cayuga Heights. Beauty is in the eye of the wallet-holder. No word on who the general contractor will be, but Novarr has often turned to Welliver for his construction work. The original buildout period was estimated at ten months, so a plausible occupancy for 238 Linden would be complete by Summer 2019.


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News Tidbits 7/21/18

21 07 2018

1.. I rarely check in on Groton, but here’s an interesting little rehabilitation. Back in August 2017, I noted that a historic village church at 113 Church Street was for sale. The buyers last February were David and Delsy DeMatteo, who own and rent out a number of Groton-area properties. The DeMatteos appear to have submitted and received approval for a plan to renovate the structure into a 12-unit apartment building, replacing the religious-turned-commercial space with ten apartment units (two units already exist). From the look of it, the ten new units would consist of eight one-bedroom and two two-bedroom units. The plan was approved in late fall when the DeMatteo likely had a purchase option on the property, and the sale closed on February 8th. Always nice to see new life breathed into a place that played a role in the lives of many.

2. Over in Dryden village, the second phase of the new Rite Aid-turned-Walgreens development site is being marketed. Great Dane Properties is touting 5,700 SF of space for lease, with a drive-thru option should one desire it. The spec site plan can be seen here – the render above is likely the north elevation. Early conversations stated a 3,800 SF restaurant space (typical for a fast food /chain coffee shop), 1,900 SF of other retail space, and 33 parking spaces, but the plan is vanilla box, meaning minimally finished interior – it’s a shell with the exterior complete and all the utilities are good to go, but the build-out of fixtures, finishes and partitions is up to the tenant. A second commercial real estate posting suggests a 2019 build-out, though it’s more likely based on the ability to secure a primary tenant.  That listing also floats a hotel as another possible use of the location.

The first post came from Craigslist, which as a matter of personal opinion, that seems a bit unbecoming for high-value commercial listings, and may not effectively reach the target market of business owners and RE corporate development teams. You’re trying to fill 5,700 SF of new retail space, not sell Grandma’s old couch.

3. Also in Dryden, plans for a new veterinary office building at 1650 Hanshaw Road. Existing site plan here, proposed site plan here, elevations here. It’s not a particularly large project – a one-story metal building 4,800 SF in size, with revised landscaping 14 new parking spaces. The new building would go in front of the existing building on the property, so not much in the way of site prep required. The plans are being drawn up and led through review by local architect George Breuhaus.

4. It looks like the gut renovation and expansion of 1020 Craft Road is complete. The $1.88 million project involved taking the existing 10,500 SF car dealership-turned-industrial building, tearing out everything except the support beams, and fully rebuilding the interior along with constructing an additional 4,400 SF of space. Three commercial office spaces were completed, and it appears Cayuga Medical has leased two of the spaces for medical offices. The project was developed and built by Marchuska Brothers Construction of Binghamton.

 

5. Speaking of renovations, it looks like someone is interested in the former Tau Epsilon Phi house at 306 Highland Road in Cayuga Heights. The plans show 15 “units” and potentially up to 48 beds, which sounds like a group living situation, but the plans do not identify the developer. The first phase would involve exterior and interior renovations for 36 beds in the 3,400 SF building, enclosing the side porch and constructing a small addition on the southeast face to create a new entrance. A second phase is shown in the documents that would seek a 1134 SF, 12-bed addition at what is currently the front entrance of the early 1960s building, the east facade. It was previously noted that 306 Highland was for sale for $1.385 million, which was steadily reduced to $1.025 million before being taken off the market at the start of June. The village will begin site plan review of the project at its Planning Board meeting on July 23rd.

6. On to Lansing. Here’s a little more about the Hillcrest Tiny House project -memo here, application here, drawings by architectural firm SPEC Consulting here,  . The five homes would be built on 16 Hillcrest Road, a parcel split by Hillcrest Road where it intersects with Warren Drive – the developer is the home owner who lives on the other half of the parcel, south of the intersection. The triangular northern piece would host the rather traditional-looking cottages, which would be one-bedroom units, about 450 SF each, and have two parking spaces apiece. The land is zoned industrial/research, which allows commercial and industrial uses – the owners argue that its location on the west side of Warren Road near other residential development along Hillcrest means that a commercial or industrial use would be out of character.

One could make an argument that this is desirable in that their small size would help address the  middle-market for housing demand, which has been lacking in new options, resulting in existing options being pressured upward in price. The project would cost about $200,000 to build and the owner/developer estimates two months to build each cottage, though it’s not clear if construction of each cottage would be concurrent, or one at a time.

Quick side note, Milton Meadows has submitted a construction plan for the new access road in tandem with the town’s realignment of the Woodsedge Drive/Route 34 intersection. Taylor the Builder, the general contractor for the project, is planning for November 2018 – September 2019 for the 72-unit affordable apartment complex.

7. Urban Core LLC has started exterior demolition and reconstruction work for the Press Bay Court project. I’ve been waiting to officially move this into the construction column for a while, could never quite be sure when walking past – the full rundown and description of the project can be found in the October introduction here. To quote part of it:

“What Urban Core’s latest plans would do is expand that “experiential” micro-retail mix eastward towards the corner of Green and Cayuga Streets, the Commons and the downtown core. The parking lot in front of D. P. Dough would be converted into a plaza much like Press Bay Alley’s, and the first floor of 108-110 West Green would be renovated into 5-8 micro-retail units facing the new plaza (the Green Street entrances would be retained), with 320-2200 SF per unit. The second floor would be renovated into four below-market rate one-bedroom apartments with 510-660 SF of living space, and the exterior masonry would be cleaned and repaired. The hawk mural will be preserved. New signage, bike infrastructure, curbing, sidewalks and a parklet are included in the plans. The total square footage in phase two is about 9,000 SF.”

8. 105 Dearborn has received a construction loan to move forward. The 10,930 SF, 12-bedroom, 16-person high-end skilled care facility will cost $4.2 million to build according to the loan filed this Friday the 20th, and over the next year it’ll slowly take form on what is now a vacant corner in leafy Cornell Heights. Bridges Cornell Heights will run the facility, and add a handful of news jobs as a result of the new addition. Tompkins Trust Company is the lender, and the historically-inspired design was penned by Rochester-based Bero Architecture.

7. Looks like a fairly interesting monthly meeting ahead for the Ithaca City Planning Board. Here’s the agenda:

1. Agenda Review 6:00
2. Privilege of the Floor 6:01

3. Subdivision Review

A. Project: Minor Subdivision 6:15
Location: 508-512 Edgewood Place
Actions: Determination of Environmental Significance – Consideration of Preliminary and Final Approval

This subdivision at the end of a private street in the East Hill neighborhood would re-subdivide a double lot that had been consolidated after the original house burnt down in the late 1930s. Any news structure on the newly created .326 acre lot would be subject to Ithaca Landmarks Preservation Commission design review. No specific plans are on file.

4. Site Plan Review

A. Project: Stewart Park Inclusive Playground 6:30
Location: Stewart Park
Applicant: Rick Manning for the City of Ithaca
Actions: Consideration of Project Changes

Project Description: The project was approved by the Planning Board on March 27, 2018. The applicant is now requesting project changes, including relocation and redesign of the bathrooms and parking area, and layout and programming changes to the overall playground.

The bathroom building was to be combined with a pavilion, but that proved to be expensive and the playground architects had bad experiences with the original structural supplier, so local architecture firm STREAM Collaborative stepped in to design a separate 24′ x 24′ bathroom building with utility rooms and storage space. The pre-school playground and sand garden were moved, the splash pad tweaked, some swings were added and the adult wellness area was deleted for this initial buildout.

B. Project: Minor Subdivision & Construction of a Duplex 6:45
Location: 209 Hudson Street
Applicant: Jagat Sharma, architect, for Bia Stavropoulos, owner
Actions: Determination of Environmental Significance

Touched on this one a couple of weeks ago – the project was revised from two duplexes to just one, with three bedrooms per unit. Even development-averse councilwoman Cynthia Brock offered support for the plan (with minor aesthetic tweaks), which is about as good as one can hope for a green light to proceed. Note no approvals are planned because this has to go to the Board of Zoning Appeals for a lot size variance.

C. Project: Major Subdivision (3 Lots), Two Duplexes, One Single Family Home & Site Improvements 7:00
Location: 128 West Falls Street
Applicant: Ron Ronsvalle
Actions: Consideration of Preliminary and Final Subdivision Approval and Site Plan Approval

BZA gave Ronsvalle’s five-unit rental project in Fall Creek the all-clear. This project came up earlier this month in a previous news roundup – a five-unit infill project in Fall Creek, originally approved in February 2015, and revived now that the developer has found a way to continue working after a debilitating accident. Don’t foresee any issues here.

D. Project: North Campus Residential Initiative (NCRI)
Location: Cornell University Campus
Applicant: Trowbridge Wolf Michaels Landscape Architecture on behalf of Cornell
Actions: Intent to Declare Lead Agency

This will be huge – 766,000 SF of space for 2,000 student dormitory beds and associated program space, including a 1,200 seat dining hall. I’ll have more coverage next week. John Novarr favorite ikon.5 is the project architect.

E. Hudson Street Townhomes – 117-119 Coddington Road –Sketch Plan 7:50

One of this week’s new shinies. This project appears to be slated for a parking between two apartment complexes and across the street from the Elks Lodge just north of Ithaca College’s campus. Depending on how they reconfigure the existing parking lot, they could do a high single-digit or low double-digit number of townhomes. Zoning here is R-3b. Up to four floors/40 feet, 40% lot coverage, one parking space per unit of per three bedrooms (two spaces for 4-5 bed units). Lot coverage may end up being based on a subdivision, since this falls into the South Hill Zoning Overlay and no additional primary structures are allowed on a lot. The property has been owned by the Dennis family since 1979, but the developer may be someone else with a purchase deal on the subdivided lot.

F. Falls Park Project – 121-125 Lake Street – Sketch Plan 8:05

This would be whatever Travis Hyde Properties is planning for the former Ithaca Gun site on Gun Hill. I have been told this is “substantially different” from the earlier Ithaca Falls Residences plan. Assume residential. This was rezoned R-3a not long back, up to four floors/40 feet, 35% lot coverage, one parking space per unit of per three bedrooms (two spaces for 4-5 bed units). I would expect a fair number of units for a 1.42 acre property; the IFR plan was 45 units.

5. Zoning Appeals 8:10
#3102, 209 Hudson St., Area Variance
#3103, 216 University Ave., Area Variance
#3104, 737 Willow Ave., Area Variance

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107 South Albany Street Construction Update, 7/2018

18 07 2018

107 South Albany is a curious mix of sheathing. The front and part of the sides consists of standard Huber ZIP System plywood panels, while the sides use GP DensElement fiberglass mat sheets with maroon liquid flashing. Atop that, wood furring is being attached, and trimboards and fiber cement lap siding (or panels, for the wall next to the central staircase) are added to finish out the exterior. The front entry will have a brick veneer, but only on the first floor, so that doesn’t explain the difference in sheathing. The windows are fitted, but the front entry is not.

These apartments should be open for occupancy in time for the new academic semester. Advertisements say August 1st, but that might be a stretch. Still, these are coming in at a more modest cost than other new market additions ($1,100/month), and adds some density to the State Street Corridor.

Background information on the project and its specifications can be found here. Renting Ithaca (Nick Stavropoulos) is the developer, and Flatfield Designs (Daniel Hirtler) is the architect.


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Harold’s Square Construction Update, 7/2018

17 07 2018

Harold’s Square is starting to take shape. The white sheets on top of the basement level are Sika Corporation UltraCure NCF curing blankets. When the steel was laid, corrugated decking was laid on top to create the base of the floor. A rebar wire mesh was then laid and tied into place, and the concrete was poured into the floor cavity, with wood forms to keep the pour in place. The rebar strengthens the concrete and ensures structural integrity. In this mid-June Facebook photo from the Harold’s Square page, you can see the decking going over the structural steel. A week and a half later, you can see the rebar grid over the completed decking. The concrete was poured in early July, the slab was covered in the cellulose fiber blankets to promote an even and structurally sound cure, and after seven days they tested the concrete and the results came back all-clear, meaning they can start to put weight on the concrete and work their way up.

Meanwhile, structural steel erection will be taking a short break as masonry work begins on the Commons-facing side of the project, followed by masonry work on the Sage Building. The steelwork will resume in late July. Subcontractor Paolangeli will be doing backfilling (earthwork to cover up the foundation) on the Green Street (south) side of the project now that the shell of the basement has been built.

The WordPress for the project can be found here, and the Ithacating project description here.


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118 College Avenue Construction Update, 7/2018

16 07 2018

The last of Visum’s trio of Collegetown projects underway is the 5-unit, 28-bedroom building at 118 College Avenue. Officially, one other Visum project has city approvals and is permitted to start construction, a close fraternal twin to 118 College just a few houses up at 126 College Avenue. However, the existing house is rented out for the academic year, so any build-out there (and Visum seems to have deep enough pockets to eventually do it, all things considered) will not begin until June 2019 at the earliest.

As with 210 Linden, Romig General Contractors is in charge of the buildout, and Taitem Engineering is doing the structural engineering – as with Visum’s other projects designed by STREAM Collaborative, the building is built to be net-zero energy capable. Using electric heating and appliances, energy efficient fixtures, low-E windows, double-stud exterior walls and high grade insulation creates a very high degree of energy efficiency that they hope to tie into an off-site solar array, offsetting the carbon footprint of the building and its use.

118 College still has another floor to go before it’s topped out, and the mechanicals will be hidden inside the historically-inspired “Italianate cupola” penthouse. Water and sewer service was installed this past week. I’m uncertain this one will be ready in time for returning Cornell students late next month, though it’s not impossible given that it’s a relatively small wood-frame structure. So far, with the rough window openings I’m seeing one substantial difference from the renders – the windows on the wings of the front facade are smaller than originally planned.


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City Centre Construction Update, 7/2018

16 07 2018

Not too much to add here regarding City Centre. The modular exterior panel system continues to rise. These photos were taken last weekend when the building was up to its sixth floor, and it’s not up to the seventh of its eight floors. For those needing a more regular fix, the webcam on the top of Seneca Way updates every fifteen minutes or so, and can be seen here. Looks like it missed me by three minutes.

Here’s an interesting little aside. A few folks have complained, in the way that many of us like to do, that the name “City Centre” is rather pretentious, particularly the faux-British English ‘Centre’. Newman Development Group has actually reused the name on another project they’re doing, in Lincoln Nebraska. That project is significantly larger than Ithaca’s, an $85 million downtown redevelopment of the former Lincoln Journal-Star newspaper office and printing press into a ten-story mixed-use with first-floor retail, two floors of offices, and 239 apartments on the upper floors. Like Ithaca’s project, it’s one of the largest urban projects in the city (rather impressive given Lincoln is ten times Ithaca’s size), and received a local tax abatement on the order of $15 million. Lincoln was selected by Newman specifically because its downtown area is close to a major university, in this case the University of Nebraska. Perhaps their Ithaca project is a new market pioneer for them – they see potential success in a mix of urban professionals and college students, and are looking for other opportunities in similar communities.

Looking at the apartment rental prices is enough to give most folks pause. Studios, which make up 33 of the 193 units, range from $1,795-$1,875/month. the 120 1-bedroom units go from $1,995-$3,015/month, and the 39 two-bedrooms range from $2,560-$3,415/month. With those prices, a prospective tenant could rent an entire house for themselves in Fall Creek or Northside; maybe it’s for the best that their attentions are drawn here instead. For the sake of comparison, City Centre Lincoln is $900-$1,200/month.

More information about Ithaca’s City Centre can be found here.


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Hilton Canopy Hotel Construction Update, 7/2018

15 07 2018

As previously mentioned on the Voice, the new 131-room Canopy by Hilton is one floor short of topping out. Interestingly, the ground level/lobby uses Georgia-Pacific DensGlass fiberglass mat sheathing, while the upper level use National Gypsum eXP boards. I’m not sure why the change – both are fire-rated, mold and water resistant. It probably doesn’t have to do with the exterior finishes (brick veneer is used at both ground level and on some of the wall projections above), but it’s possible it has to do with the construction material. The ground level is composed of poured concrete, while the upper floors are structural steel and accompanying steel stud walls. Regardless of the reason, both are being covered with the same water-resistive barrier. You can see the interior stud walls through the rough window openings, but interior work hasn’t progressed much farther than that on the more recently erected upper floors. The lower floors appear to be undergoing utility rough-ins.

It still isn’t clear what the replacement panel color will be for the yellowish “Applesauce Cake” – not sure if Whitham Planning and the rest of the project team persuaded the city “Dark Ash” grey was okay, or if another color was chosen. If someone knows, feel free to chime in the comments.

Further information on the Canopy hotel can be found here.


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Chapter House / 406 Stewart Avenue Construction Update, 7/2018

15 07 2018

With 400-404 Stewart Avenue complete, developer Jim Goldman is focusing on the completion of the other half of his reconstruction, 406 Stewart Avenue. This is the property that Goldman originally owned and was destroyed in the spread of the fire that erupted at the Chapter House building. Architect Jason K. Demarest’s 3.5 story design is completely framed and sheathed in ZIP Panels; the panels are then covered in HydroGap, a premium grade housewrap to remove excess moisture while keeping new moisture from penetrating into the plywood sheathing. This is then layered over with (what I suspect are fiber cement) shakes, in contrast to the first floor’s lap siding.

My first inclination was that they needed to be painted, but looking at the design render, it appears as if the project team decided to reverse the brown and red siding bands, so now the first floor is red like the original building, but the upper floors are brown. This is not the first major change to the design, which was approved by the ILPC, but any revisions may have been done out of committee view at the staff level. The fenestration on the third floor is different, and the dormer on the gable roof was deleted. Note the partially glazed-in access stair for the third floor apartments, and the quarried bluestone stair columns and base.

There’s still a fair amount of work to do on the exterior with facade installation, trim and finish pieces and the installation of a steel grate to access the enclosed stair column. The one inside shot shows drywall hung with doors and some trim in place, but some pieces are still missing, the wall needs to be painted and the floors have to be finished. However, it’s not an especially large building (four units and eleven bedrooms as-approved), so chances are pretty good this will be ready to go by mid-August.

As for the Chapter House, a few shots through the window glass show the carpeted staircase leading up to the eight apartment units, and an unfinished 3,000 SF commercial space still looking for a tenant.


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News Tidbits 7/14/2018

14 07 2018

1. We’ll start of in Dryden with some revisions to the Trinitas project. This project has slowly but steadily been winnowed down in size. The original proposal in late May was 224 units and 663 beds. The June revisions dropped that figure to 22 units and 649 beds. Now with the latest set of revisions, the unit and bed count has fallen to 220 units and 610 beds. In other words, capacity has dropped by about 8% so far. A copy of the presentation Trinitas gave to the town board last month can be found in their minutes on the town website here.

From a site plan perspective, you can see a number of substantial changes – some townhouse buildings were lengthened in the southern corner, other strings shortened or broken up, the clubhouse/community building is now a mixed-use structure, and a couple of townhouse strings were deleted outright. About the only portion that was unchanged was the trio of structures closest to Dryden Road.

The early working name for this project was “Fall Creek Village”, which while referencing Fall Creek just to its north, may not have been a wise choice given the neighborhood of Fall Creek in Ithaca, which has been the epicenter for Ithaca’s gentrification. It was suggested they change the name, ideally to something with “Varna” in it. There’s about a hundred other pros, cons and general thoughts shared during the meeting, which can be read here. The project team would like to have approvals by the end of the fall, for a Spring 2019 – August 2020 construction period. As all the paperwork is filed, reviewed and discussed, expect more revisions to the project before any final approval is considered and granted.

2. Tompkins Financial may have relocated all its operations to its new headquarters, but that doesn’t mean its the end of the road for its old properties. 1051 Craft Road, formerly home to the Tompkins Insurance Agency, was sold to Ithaca Dermatology Associates of Ithaca on June 5th for $1.2 million. The 7,541 SF building was built in 1995 and assessed at $990,000, so Tompkins Trust did okay with the sale price – they purchased the building for $965,000 in 2007.

The new chapter is, as you might’ve already guessed, medical office and service space. With the assistance of a $1.5 million construction loan from Tompkins Trust, the Ithaca Dermatology is renovating the building for its new clinic. The hard cost of the renovations (materials/labor) is $1.025 million, and the spruced up facilities are expected to be open by January. Local architecture firm Chiang O’Brien, who have a specialty in medical facilities (they did Cornell Health’s new building and Planned Parenthood’s new regional HQ) is designing the renovated space, and Hammond Heating and Plumbing is the contractor.

3. If you’re looking for something interesting in local planning board agenda, there isn’t much to see at the moment. The town of Ithaca’s PB will be looking at a vacant lot subdivision between 721 and 817 Elmira Road (no future plans stated), and a lot subdivision on Enfield Falls Road to create three home lots and a large wooded parcel to be conveyed to the state as a conserved natural area. Over in Lansing, they’ll be looking at a plan for five micro-sized rental cottages at 16 Hillcrest Road.

4. The near-waterfront office building at 798 Cascadilla Street has been sold. 798 Cascadilla LLC made a deal with the too-similarly named Cascadilla 798 LLC for $2.55 million on Thursday the 12th.  As reported when then building went on sale, the 18,271 SF office building is home to Palisade Corporation, a software firm specializing in decision making/risk analysis tools. 798 Cascadilla LLC is the managing company for Palisade co-founder Sam McLafferty, who recently passed away. Cascadilla 798 LLC is a bit of a question mark – they were created in May and registered to this address, so maybe someone else associated with Palisade is buying it. The asking price for 798 Cascadilla was $2.7 million, and the tax assessment is for $2 million. Pyramid Brokerage’s David Huckle conducted the sale.

5. Maybe something the infill folks in the city want to watch – 622 West Clinton Street just sold to Jerame Hawkins, who two years ago wanted to do an affordable duplex (60% Area Median Income) to replace the old barn (yes, barn) at the rear of the property, as well as keep the existing house locked in as affordable housing. Carina would have supplied the modular units for the three-bedroom townhomes, and Finger Lakes ReUse would have salvaged the barn. Hawkins had applied for $135k in IURA federal grant funds, but the proposal was not funded. However, his purchase of the property now makes a potential affordable infill project somewhat more likely, though we’ll have to wait and see.

6. Color me intrigued – does Pat Kraft have a tenant lined up for the ground level of his Dryden South building at 205 Dryden Road? I have yet to see paperwork, but we’ll see.

7. It appears the Stavropoulos family, local landlords who have undertaken several smaller-scale projects in recent years, are about to add to their holdings. It would appear they are buying out Jagat Sharma’s properties as the well-known Collegetown architect heads into retirement (since he’s almost 80, I can’t blame him). The Stavropoulos purchased a four-unit house at 208-210 Prospect Street from Sharma this week (for $480k, well above the $350k assessed), and an LLC notice was posted recently for 312 East Seneca LLC, which is registered to the Stavropouloses’ home address. 312 East Seneca is also the office of Sharma Architecture (and the cat cafe), and was eyed as a potential Visum acquisition for its Seneca Flats mixed-use plan at 201 North Aurora Street (Visum has conceptual plans for versions with and without Sharma’s lot, so this sale doesn’t kill their plans, though not having the property shrinks it somewhat).

Slowly but steadily, the Stavropoulos are buying and building their way to significantly-sized landlords. Current projects include the 11-unit building finishing up at 107 North Albany Street, and the infill duplex planned for 209 Hudson Street. Last year, they developed four units at 1001 North Aurora Street, and they have a dozen other properties throughout the city under the business name “Renting Ithaca“.

8. We’ll leave this off with some thoughts from the Tompkins County Housing Committee, with four initiatives it will be pursuing to help address the lack of affordable housing in Ithaca and its surrounding environs:

I. Solicit the state attorney general for ways it might be able to legally expand or enhance its Community Housing Development Fund with Cornell and the city of Ithaca. The CHDF is the only way the county can fund housing development since it can’t legally fund housing development directly, but CHDF is relatively limited in its scale and abilities.

II. Develop a proposal for a municipal matching fund to help with grant writing for affordable housing, zoning improvement and infrastructure to serve affordable housing.

III. Planning staff will conduct an infill site analysis in development focus areas (Downtown, State Street Corridor). This would potentially find opportunities in surplus or underused county property that may be developed as affordable housing through an RFP process.

IV. Planning Staff will participate in the Policy Lab Study (“Jennifer and George’s Study”) to provide data and help inform the client committee. I honestly have no idea what this refers to.

 

 

 


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210 Linden Avenue Construction Update 7/2018

13 07 2018

Time to take a look at Visum’s smaller Collegetown projects. 210 Linden is the largest and furthest along; the city allowed them to hook up to water and sewer service this week.

Note there are some clear differences between what was originally approved, and what’s being built. The fenestration is a different layout – the top floor windows originally did not line up with the window arrangement of the other floors. Secondly, the floor-to-ceiling multi-pane treatment on the top floor’s front (east) facade has been eliminated, given a similar if slightly glassier treatment as the other three floors, which had a balcony window reduced in size. The most likely guess is value engineering – save cost, save time, especially the latter since the building needs to be open by mid-August.

The overall shape remains the same, but with these changes it’s a bit of a question mark as to the appearance of the final materials – it’s probably the same as approved, since the vertical wood rails over the sheathing indicate the LP SmartSide fiber cement lap siding is coming at some point. The sheathing is a mix of Huber plywood zip panels with its specialized tape system, and TYPAR housewrap over plywood panels courtesy of North Main Lumber, a regional lumber sales chain. Romig General Contractor is doing the build-out, and their work with Visum is arguably the first multi-family project they’ve tackled in the Ithaca area.

Although 210 Linden is too small to host much in the way of amenities (it has a garbage collection room and bike room in the basement), its 37 residents will have full access to the amenities offered in The Lux just up the street. Connecting the dots, those were probably quartz countertops in the Lux update; seems plausible the same high-end fixtures, cabinetry and appliances would be used in both.

The background info/intro to 210 Linden can be found here.


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Categories : construction, ithaca, photos, student housing

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