construction | Ithacating in Cornell Heights

Boiceville Cottages Construction Update, 11/2015

9 11 2015

It looks like construction has started in earnest on the last phase of the Boiceville Cottages. All the concrete slab-on-grade foundations have been poured, with the blue exterior insulation to be covered later by a little backfill. Atop the foundations are utility connections and wood sill plates, which is where the wood stud walls will go. From a quick walk-through, it looks like rough framing and sheathing has begun on at least three of the cottages, and that all the units to be built in this final phse will be stand-along cottages. According to the Boiceville Cottages facebook page, the last septic tank was installed last week.

Without knowing too much about Caroline’s tax base, this is arguably the largest residential tax-contributor to the town, if not the largest tax-contributor to Caroline period. The current phase calls for 17 units at a cost of $2.2 million, $2,098,479 of which goes towards hard construction costs (materials/labor). The cottages are part of the 75 unit addition approved by the town of Caroline back in 2012. Altogether, those 75 units have hard construction costs of $7,477,671, according to construction loan documents filed with the county. The 2015 assessed value for the property was $10.3 million for 122 units in 2015, and that number is likely to climb a couple million higher in the next year or so.

The Boiceville Cottages began with a first phase of 24 units in 1996/1997, with a second phase of 36 units ten years later. Now, a few things have been tweaked along the way, because the build-out no longer matches the 2012 construction documents – some triplet cottage clusters on the engineer’s map have been replaced with “gatehouses” and quadruplet cottage clusters during build-out. For the longest time, I’ve been using 135 units as the total (24+36+75), but given this statement from their facebook page, it looks like the final count will actually be 140 units. The Boiceville Cottages expansion will finally wrap up its years of construction next summer.

Apart from some early concerns about site drainage, there haven’t been too many objective issues with the project. Subjectively, some love the bright colors, others can’t stand them. Heck, even Simon St. Laurent gives them a little appreciation on the “Living in Dryden” blog.

For those interested in visiting the cottages, they sit on 37.7 acres on either side of 300-334 Boiceville Road, just west of the hamlet of Slaterville Springs. Rents range from $1,050 for a studio to $1,750 for a three-bedroom gatehouse unit. Most of the units are 1 and 2-bedroom cottages, built in clusters of three, with a few “gatehouse” rowhouses that offer studios and 3-bedroom units. The cottages fall in the 850-1050 SF range.

Schickel Construction is headed by Bruno Schickel of Dryden, following in the footsteps of generations of Schickels living and building in Ithaca. In some circles, Bruno Schickel is better known as the husband of the famous columnist Amy Dickinson.

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Tags: boiceville cottages, construction, housing, photos, tompkins county
Categories : construction, photos, Tompkins County

News Tidbits 11/7/15: All the Small Things

7 11 2015

1. The Chapter House project is finally beginning the first stages of design review with the ever-stringent (or picky, pending your view) Ithaca Landmarks Preservation Council. As seen in the render above, gone is the fourth floor, and gone for now are plans to build a new structure at 408 Stewart, after some members of the ILPC expressed opposition to a tear-down, even though the exterior has been butchered and the architect called it a “fire trap”.

The committee also had disagreements over which version of the Chapter House is more historic, the original ca. 1903 design evoked above, or the 1920s renovation that everyone remembers. The September minutes showed intent towards the four story design seen previously, but the design shown above is three floors – whether that be to the committee’s persuasion, or concerns over a zoning variance isn’t clear. It might be in October’s minutes, but those haven’t been approved, and are therefore not available yet.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the committee is planning “Property Condition Review and Potential Action” for the decayed carriage house at 312 West State Street. The board was also set to provide “Early Design Review” for a project at 315 North Cayuga Street, probably some kind of renovation/restoration of the First Presbyterian Church, but the item has since been pulled.

2. Wait long enough and history repeats itself. In March 2009, I did a post called “Warren Real Estate Tries to Sell a Frat House“. It looked at 210 Thurston Avenue in Cornell Heights, when it was on the market for $950,000. The house has historically been a Cornell fraternity house, built around 1900, re-purposed not long thereafter for the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity until WWII, when the brothers left for service and the chapter never reopened. It was then used by other GLOs over the decades (Alpha Omicron Pi in the 1940s, Sigma Alpha Mu from the late 1940s to early 2000s, and Phi Delta Theta’s annex in the late 2000s).

After sitting on the market for a couple of years, the house sold in December 2011 for $677,500 to an LLC representing the wealthy parent of a Cornell wrestler, who had the house renovated for the team in 2011/12. The legal occupancy increased from 33 to 40 persons as a result of the reno.

So now it’s on the market again, this time for $2,750,000. That must have been quite a renovation. An open house will be held 1-3 PM this Sunday.

I’d recommend it to the Phi Mu ladies given their recent rejection by Cayuga Heights’ zoning board, but the asking price is almost four times the house they were looking at 520 Wyckoff. The house on Wyckoff was also intended for 16 occupants rather than 40. Oh, and I suppose those urinals the owners installed would be a bit out of place.

We’ll see what happens. This one could be on the market for a while. Again.

3. Also new to the market this week, two parcels in the town of Ithaca that have the potential for development.

The first, 1564 Slaterville Road. The sale includes four parcels – 1564 Slaterville Road itself, a 19th century home on 1.52 acres, and the other three are vacant parcels with frontage on Slaterville Road and Park Lane, which serves as an entrance to the Eastern Heights neighborhood, and has seen a number of higher-end single-family homes in the past several years (there have been plans for a 16-lot housing development on the adjacent land to the north, but nothing has been approved). Altogether, the sale comprises 9.2 acres of land, on the market for $995,000. The properties are valued at $297,300 total, so if the owner is asking such a high price, either they’re delusional, or purposely going after developers. The land currently falls under Ithaca town’s Medium-Density Residential (MDR) zoning, which is single-family homes and duplexes only. The Comprehensive Plan calls for “Established Neighborhood” use, with an average of 2-4 units/acre, either homes, townhomes or apartments (sensitive to neighboring uses), and the possibility of low-intensity commercial (home office). Expect any potential form-based code to accommodate those details.

The other parcel up for sale is 969 East Shore Road, one of the few properties in the town’s lakeshore exclave. This one is also asking a huge premium, $1.45 million for a 2.09-acre property assessed at $300,000. The property was used as the headquarters for the John C. Lowery construction company until they moved to Freeville; it had been built in the 1960s for a chemical company. The seller, the CEO of a local manufacturer, picked up the property for $300,000 in December 2013.

Although it falls under the town’s Lakefront Commercial (LC) zoning, which in itself says only marinas and wind turbines are okay, special use permits allow for mixed-use, hotel, and other non-water options. Like the Slaterville parcel, this one also falls under the “Established Neighborhood” use guidelines.

If they sell, and it bears mentioning, it’ll be mentioned in a later news roundup.

4. It’s house of the week. This week, 319 Oak Avenue in Collegetown. The lot was created by a subdivision of the existing lot, 424 Dryden Road, in February of this year. What was once a parking lot is now the foundation for a duplex with 3-bedrooms each. Foundation and stem walls have been poured and cured, and given that this photo is a couple weeks old, the foundation has probably been backfilled already, and rough framing may even be underway.

The site falls into the CR-2 Zone of the Collegetown Form District, meaning 2-3 floors, and pitched roofs and porches are required. The architect is Daniel Hirtler of Ithaca, and the developers are William and Angie Chen, also of Ithaca.

5. It’s a quiet week. The city of Ithaca’s projects memo has absolutely nothing new (not even new attachments to the three projects subject to review), and the town of Lansing has nothing interesting either. So we’ll wrap this up with some economic news:

A Lansing technology firm will be seeking sales tax abatements this month as part of a planned expansion project.

Advanced Design Consulting USA (ADC), located in a 15,000 SF facility at 126 Ridge Road in the town of Lansing, has submitted an application to the Tompkins County Industrial Development Authority (TCIDA) for review at their November 12th meeting.

The company is applying for a one-time sales tax abatement on the cost of construction materials, and is valued at $54,880.

ADC specializes in the design and manufacture of high-precision scientific instruments, especially those used in physics research. The firm states in their IDA application that their small size has limited their ability to gain large contracts, and it is necessary for them to expand in order to expand their business. The 5,000 SF expansion is valued at $910,000, and would retain 14 jobs and create 7 additional jobs in their Lansing facility, with a median salary of $40,000. If approved, the expansion project would be completed by June 2016. With the expansion, ADC’s revenues are predicted to increase from the current $2 million, to $2.7 million in three years. The company did not commit to local construction labor in their application.

In an interview in 2014, ADC President Alexander Deyhim explained that the company declined a business incentive to move to Oak Ridge, Tennessee because of Tompkins County’s high quality of life, and proximity to Cornell’s nano-fabrication facilities.

For ADC, which was founded in Tompkins County in 1995, it will be the third expansion in twelve years. The company had previously applied for and received tax abatement approvals for a larger, 20,000 SF expansion project, but according to the current application, the firm reassessed its needs and decided to go with a smaller plan for the time being. The original abatement was never utilized. Supplemental documents indicate the town of Lansing has approved the physical plans for the expansion.

***
So does one force the company to use local labor, or does one risk turning the company down and sending the whole operation to Tennessee? Tax abatements are hardly ever a black-and-white decision.

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Tags: 210 Thurston, chapter house, collegetown, construction, greek system, lansing, photos, tompkins county
Categories : collegetown, construction, greek system, ithaca, news, Tompkins County

Carey Building Construction Update, 10/2015

22 10 2015

It looks like the Carey Building overbuild has topped out. Corrugated metal decking now covers all five floors of the addition. Interior metal stud walls have been roughed-in on the third through fifth floors, and some fiber glass-mat gypsum sheathing is even starting to show up on the exterior metal stud walls of the third floor. Look closely and you can see the window openings.

Looking at the Rev Business Incubator’s photo from the 19th, plastic sheeting now covers the front of the addition, and a little more progress has been made on those stud walls. Like the Lofts project, they project may end up looking like it’s trapped in a plastic bubble as the cool air gets frostier, and the need to keep those chilly winds at bay becomes more urgent. They also help in water proofing.

From October 11th:

From Rev, October 19th:

We have the beginnings of some walls on those floors! #progress pic.twitter.com/Q1MtauV0jo

— Rev: Ithaca Startup Works (@revIthaca) October 19, 2015

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Tags: carey building, construction, downtown ithaca, ithaca, photos
Categories : construction, ithaca, photos

Ithaca Marriott Construction Update, 10/2015

21 10 2015

Over at the site of the new downtown Ithaca Marriott, the foundation has been dug and set, and the project is now about level with North Aurora Street. The rebar (reinforcing steel bars) that sticks out of the concrete footings will be used to tie-in the hotel’s walls as they’re constructed. Wooden forms are in place to provide rigidity and shape while newly-poured concrete hardens, and they give support to the rebar rods embedded in the concrete. The forms will move further upward as more concrete is poured and cured. On the side closer to the commons, caisson tubes, massive open pipes, encase the rebar up to 30 feet below ground level. These will transfer the heavy load of the upper floors down to the bedrock below, providing structural stability for the future 10-story hotel. Some of the materials have been supplied by UFP Concrete Forming Systems.

The foundation walls vary in thickness depending on the weight they’re designed to hold. The newly-poured section next to the Green Street garage will hold the elevator shaft, stairwell and space for utilities.

Contractor William H. Lane of Binghamton has a crane on site, and steel erection above the foundation walls will start fairly soon from the looks of it. The 159-room hotel should open next summer if all stays to schedule.

From August 29th:

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Tags: construction, downtown ithaca, hotels, ithaca marriott, Marriott, photos
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804 East State Street Construction Update, 10/2015

20 10 2015

A new, small project to add to the list of projects underway, 804 East State has started construction on the fringe of Collegetown. The owners of the site, the Nestopoulos family of Ithaca, are building two modular duplexes, 4 units total, with 3 bedrooms each (12 total).

The foundations have been dug for both duplexes, and form boards have been placed in the footprints of the west building. The concrete foundation gets poured into the form boards, and the boards help the concrete hold its shape while it cures. Looking closely, you can see a few steps in the wood forms, since the site is sloped, the concrete foundation will be stepped. The small wood sticks on top of the forms are spreaders, to provide extra stiffness.

Once the forms are squared and levelled, the concrete will be poured in, levelled off and smoothed over. After a day or so, the forms can be removed, leaving the newly-finished foundation. Once the foundation is ready, the builders can begin erecting the concrete masonry unit (CMU) walls, the hollow concrete blocks seen in the photos. The modular pieces will then be brought in, hoisted into place and sealed together, not unlike the process at the Belle Sherman Cottages.

The plan is to have these completed by December 2015, with new occupants (likely students) moving in the following month. The project replaces a gravel parking lot. In an effort to appease neighbor opposition about the homes simple (and perhaps bland) design, the number of houses was reduced from three to two, they were oriented to minimize visual impact, parking was moved from below the units to surface lots, and extensive landscaping with an “outdoor room” is planned.

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Tags: 112 blair, collegetown, construction, ithaca, photos, student housing
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205 Dryden Road (Dryden South) Construction Update, 10/2015

19 10 2015

Turning the corner from 307 College, 205 Dryden (“Dryden South” for marketing purposes) is the third of Collegetown’s midrise apartment buildings under construction. The basement has been excavated and sheet metal piles keep the surrounding soil from spilling back in. The basement will contain the mechanical room and storage space. Structural steel has been erected up to street level. In the second image, the outlines of future interior basement walls and the base of the future elevator shaft can be seen.

In what’s sure to stoke a few tempers, prices for Dryden South have been priced at $1350/bedroom per month, meaning $5400/month for each 4-bedroom unit. Incredibly expensive, but not especially surprising given the astronomically high land values in central Collegetown. Owner Pat Kraft, who also runs Kraftee’s book store, has actively marketed the apartments on Facebook, Craigslist and its own website.

When completed in July/August 2016, the 6-story, 65-foot structure will house Kraftee’s in 2,400 SF of retail space on its ground floor, and 2 4-bedroom apartments on each of the upper five floors, for a total of 10 units and 40 bedrooms.

As you can tell from the first photo, apart from the demolition earlier this summer, work has yet to begin on John Novarr’s Collegetown Dryden project next door. But with approvals in hand, that six-story research/office building will be starting something in the next month, if the site plan review document is still accurate. The $6.4 million project was designed by Ithaca architect Jagat Sharma and Rochester-based LeChase Contruction is in charge of the build-out.

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Tags: collegetown, construction, dryden south, ithaca, photos, student housing
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307 College Avenue (Collegetown Crossing) Construction Update, 10/2015

18 10 2015

The largest of the apartment projects under way in Collegetown, Urban Ithaca (the Lower family’s) project at 307 College Avenue, the “Collegetown Crossing” development, has made significant progress in the past few months.

Structural steel columns have risen to the height of the building’s second floor, and some cross beams have been erected. The concrete area where the buckets are sitting in the second image is the future pedestrian walkway connecting College and Linden Avenues. A year from now, those pillars will support the second through sixth floors, while a vegetated pocket park and walkway will lead past the main lobby for the apartments, one of the commercial spaces, and the laundry area, before a kink in the path takes it past the entrance to rear stairs and a fitness center, and then out towards Linden Avenue.

Also, don’t let the perspective fool you – the fire station’s concrete pad (where the photos were taken from) is a little higher than the walkway, so the walkway’s height is greater than it looks.

Notice the three concrete boxes? The closest concrete box to where I’m standing is the lobby’s stairwell. The one a little further behind it is for the lobby elevator, and the third one, furthest back in the photo, is for the freight elevator and rear stairwell. One of the two smaller storefronts will be in front of the elevator shaft towards the street, its outline clearly visible in the poured concrete of the second photo. All three of these will rise with the rest of the building as it moves skyward.

The project will bring 96 bedrooms to market in 46 units, as well as a 3,200 SF full-service branch of the Greenstar Co-Op grocery store. Two other commercial spaces and an indoor TCAT bus stop are planned, but no tenant announcements have been made for the other retail spaces. Apartment rents are expected to be in $950-$1250/bedroom range. Everything should be open for occupancy by August 2016.

According to construction loan documents recently filed with county, the project’s cost is about $10.5 million. Collegetown favorite Jagat Sharma is the designer, and Hayner Hoyt Corporation out of Syracuse will be in charge of construction.

In case anyone’s wondering, the “harlequin house” behind 307 College, 226 Linden Avenue, is another Lower property. Just like 205 College.

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Tags: collegetown, collegetown crossing, construction, ithaca, photos, student housing
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327 Eddy Street (Dryden Eddy Apts) Construction Update, 10/2015

16 10 2015

Of the three major Collegetown apartment projects currently underway, 327 Eddy is probably the least “impressive” to look at because it has yet to begin putting up structural steel. But this isn’t to say there isn’t work underway.

The site has been excavated and the base of the building has been established. A steel rebar grid mesh can be seen at the base of the upper tier, with utility lines feeding through. The rebar mesh is a reinforcement for the concrete when it gets poured, helping to prevent cracks that may from in the concrete from spreading throughout the foundation and causing major damage. The lower building tier have yet to receive the rebar mesh, but given the elevation render, it might be filled out first with the “flowable fill” referenced in the last update. Rimming the base are steel sheet piles, which lock together to form a wall designed to keep spoil and water from neighboring properties from spilling onto the construction site.

Plans call for a new 5-story building split into “steps” on the steeply-sloped site. The mixed-use building will bring 1,800 SF of retail space and 22 new apartment units with 53 bedrooms to the market in August 2016. Longtime Collegetown landlord Steve Fontana (of the Fontana’s Shoes family) is the developer, Jagat Sharma is the architect, and GM Crisalli & Associates of Syracuse will be overseeing construction. A construction loan of $4,824,000 is being provided by Tompkins Trust Company.

Note in the elevation drawing below, the building is six stories. It was reduced to five, and the decorative crown was reworked after approval was granted.

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Categories : collegetown, construction, ithaca, news, photos, student housing

Belle Sherman Cottage Construction Update, 10/2015

15 10 2015

There’s not a whole lot left to say from a construction standpoint for the Belle Sherman Cottages project, located off of the 800 block of Mitchell Street. The townhouses are essentially complete, all that’s left is some landscaping and interior finishing-out. The Simplex modular pieces for the second set of five townhouses arrived on-site in mid-August, two for each townhouse unit. The pieces are then leveled and fitted together with steel plates, and then customized interior work begins for things like fixtures and flooring. On the outside, the foundation is backfilled, siding is attached, decks are built if the buyer chose to have one, and the landscaping is planted. The straw helps to keep the grass seed warm and moist so it can germinate, and it reduces the chance that wind will blow it away.

One difference from the computer rendering is that the render has all five townhouses at the same elevation. However, they’re actually staggered slightly, with the elevation dropping a few inches per unit as one moves from east to west. The same staggering effect was used on the first set of townhouses as well, with each unit dropping a few inches in elevation from north to south.

So, from start to finish, this was about…3.5 years? That’s not counting Lot 9, which doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon. Most of the new home construction was concentrated in just the past year and half – sales were slow at first, but they took off in early 2014.

The Belle Sherman Cottages project was developed by Agora Development of Skaneateles, and built by Carina Construction of Ithaca. Overall site design was penned by Ithaca-based STREAM Collaborative. The Simplex units were sourced from the company’s facility in Scranton, PA. A video of the construction process can be found on Carina’s Youtube account here.

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Tags: belle sherman cottages, construction, ithaca, photos
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Village Solars Construction Update, 10/2015

14 10 2015

With phase one of the Village Solars apartment complex completed and housing its first tenants, work is well underway on phase two. 12-unit Building “D”, which shares the same general design as phase one’s Building “B”, has already been framed, sheathed with a Tyvek-type of housewrap, mostly fitted-out (a couple windows and the balcony doors have not been installed), and even some siding has been installed on the ground level. This seems to be a change-up from the previous phase, which used ZIP System plywood for sheathing. Also, in a departure from Building “B”, Building “D” opts for larger windows in place of the very small juliet balconies on the upper floors.

Across the property to the east (and on the other side of the future pond) is the 18-unit Building “G/H”, a new design. Framing and wood studs are only beginning to arise on the ground floor. Plywood that will be used in future sheathing has been propeed up against the newly-erected wall studs. The concrete slab foundation has been poured and cured, and underground utilities have been installed.

Building “G/H” was created when developer Lifestyle Properties (the Lucente family) was working with NYSEG to lay out the utilities after approvals were granted and the first phase was underway. It was decided to make phase 2 all electric services, due to concerns that Lansing may not be able to provide gas service if the situation with the gas pipeline proposal on West Dryden Road doesn’t go in the town’s favor. One of the results of the utility infrastructure change was a difference in utilities layout, which impacted the site design for walkways, and the Lucentes are sought and received approvals last Spring to revise the PDA (planned development area, similar to the city’s PUD and the town’s PDZ) to change G and H from two separate buildings, to one large building that occupied a smaller footprint.

Lastly is Building “E”. “E” will be an 11-unit apartment building, though it’s not clear if it will be a new design, or simply an interior rearrangement of units. Right now, only the concrete forms for the foundation have been constructed, with what appears to be trenches for utility lines criss-crossing the site. Taking a rough guess, “D” will be completed and for rent before the end of this year, “G/H” by the end of Spring, and “E” will be finished in time for next year’s students, mid-to-late summer 2016.

Building “F” is part of a separate phase, “2A”. It will contain 10 units and a community center. According to Rocco Lucente in an interview last month, work on Building “F” will begin after the other phase two buildings are completed.

The first three buildings in the Village Solars complex, buildings “A”, “B” and “C” with 36 units in total, were completed this summer at a cost of $4.7 million, according to loan documents on file. Rents posted on Craigslist have one-bedroom units listed for $1050-$1145, two-bedroom units for $1235-$1369, and three-bedroom apartments rent for $1565-$1650. Prices vary a little depending on what floor the unit is on – the higher up a unit is, the more it costs.

Phase two will cost about $6 million, according to the construction loan filed with the county. Tompkins Trust Bank is providing financing. Future phases call for upwards of 300 units on site.