An Updated Exercise in Mapping

16 11 2012

It’s been about a year and half since the first set of maps. For one thing, I felt that for the work that went in, I was unsatisfied with the result, which kept me from attempting a revision for a while. But, at this time, it would be high time to post a long-overdue update in map form.

The same rules apply as before: Under construction means demo/site prep/frames going up, Approved means the paperwork is okayed but physical startup has yet to commence, proposed means the project has yet to receive approval, and stale proposals refer to projects that may have been proposed or approved, but no action has been taken in the past several months.  So, starting with the heart of the city:

UNDER CONSTRUCTION:

1. Seneca Way – Which just held its official groundbreaking. 5 to 6 stories (it’s on a hill), 38 apartments and some office space, which will be rented by Warren Real Estate and the Park Foundation. Readers might recall that the Park Foundation, an NPO, floated the idea of renting space in the Cayuga Place project.

2. Breckinridge Place Apartments – a 50-unit, six-story project undertaken by INHS, the affordable housing group. The project is set for the first renters to move in in fall 2013.

3. The Holiday Inn Expansion – The low-rise two-story wings of the hotel are being demolished to make way for a 9-story tower with 115 hotel rooms. Now, I think offhand that I could count the gross increase in rooms on my fingers and toes, but the real important piece of this project is a small convention facility, sorely needed in Ithaca.

4. Iacovelli Apts., 619 W. Seneca – These should be in the final stages at this point. 3-stories, 24 units.

5. Aurora Street Dwelling Circle – An eco-friendly pocket neighborhood with 4 new units. Construction began in July.

APPROVED

1. Cayuga Green – After an extension on special financial abatements with the  city, this project has been virtually mandated to start construction by mid-2013, and I do believe the developer has obtained financing. The new building will offer 39 units and a small amount of commercial space.

2. Ithaca Marriott Hotel Downtown – Originally conceived as the Hotel Ithaca, the project underwent a significant revision, which require (and recently received) approvals. The project has 160 rooms, 10-stories, and is set to start construction no later than March on an 18-month time frame.

PROPOSED

1. Harold Square – A recently-proposed and massive project by Ithaca standards.  11 floors, with 126,000 sq ft of office space and 60-70 apartments. The project will likely be through several months of scrutiny before receiving approvals, with completion probably in the 2014/15 range.

2. Planned Parenthood, Ithaca – Undergoing review, the project seeks to build a new two-story building with 18,200 sq ft of space. EDIT: This one was just approved at the last meeting. But it would be a pain to update the map.

3.  Cascadilla Landing – Another massive project. I believe preliminary, but not final, approvals have been granted. The project seeks to beef up Ithaca’s waterfront substantially with 22 townhomes, 134 apartments, and about 36,000 sq ft of commercial space. Construction is expected shortly after approval, and will take place in phases over two years.

4. Stone Quarry Apartments – INHS’s newest large scale project, with 35 units, 19 in a three-story apartment building and 16 townhomes. The project is slated for 400 Spencer Street, a site currently utilized by Ithaca Taxi Dispatch.  The project has just started preliminary review, and financing is being arranged. Surprise, surprise, neighbors say they oppose the project, with traffic concerns, and one woman claiming “it would attract criminal activity to the area“. Apparently, a 24/7 taxi operation is much more preferable.

5. Yes, I am lazy enough that I have yet to write an entry on this. It’s in the queue. Three apartment buildings, three stories each and with 36 units total, proposed for the hilly 100 block of East Clinton, or just east of the police headquarters. The building will have wood siding, shingle roofing, and will likely look vaguely similar to the large apartment houses similar to those in Collegetown. The project is by Ithaca’s favorite all-for-one stereotypical capitalist land developer, Jason Fane, who owns the Cityview complex on the north side of the property. Cityview’s lot would share parking with the new buildings.

Turning to suburbia, as C’Town and Cornell will be a later entry, there’s a few things going on.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

1. 12 senior apartments, a byproduct of the approval process for the new BJ’s (black box).

2 and 3. Housing developments – Millcroft (31 lots with about one-third sold/built), and the Heights of Lansing (80 units, about 25% complete).

APPROVED

1. Off of Cinema Drive, a 39-unit, 3/4 story apartment building with two retail spaces.

STALE PROPOSAL

1. Lansing Reserve (65 units), caught up in the protests of angry residents, including this re-god-damn-diculous website. Complete with misleading aerial rendering. Here’s the correct one. Also, another outlandish claim:

“The daily traffic through our neighborhoods is predicted to increase to between 1500 and 2000 residential car trips…”

For 65 units of housing. Let’s do some math. If there’s one car per residence, that’s 23 car trips a day minimum. Hm. Seems a little high. Regardless of the bat-s**t insanity of the nimbys, the project is on hold while land-use studies are undertaken.

But hey, this is the village.  Right up Warren Road about a mile or so, the town is considering an 88-unit project, and an apartment project that would add 312 units to two complexes in that same area. The 312 apartments have preliminary approval, so it won’t be long now. And let’s not forget the town’s Town Center projects. So by all means, complain about the undesirables.


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It Pays To Ask

2 11 2012

Finding renderings and digging up information tends to be a one-person task. Once in a while, on a whim, I’ll email the marketers or a director of new projects, or whoever is in charge of something, and ask them if there are any public renderings. As one might expect, I don’t get a response back.

Until today.

Actually, until yesterday. I only check the ithacating email once every few days.

I had emailed Scott Reynolds, the Director of Real Estate Development for INHS, asking if I might be able to get a copy of the renderings. My reasoning in my intro email. “I follow Ithaca construction projects, but I’ve moved out of the area for the time being.” Essentially, this makes me some random guy, not a potential client.

I received renderings in response to my inquiry. A small piece of my faith in humanity has been restored.

The apartments have a fairly modern look, clean and contemporary if perhaps a little fussy with the rooflines. But, this design is much more comforting than certain other recently proposed projects.

The townhouses follow the same theme. There will be 16 townhomes (two rows of eight), and 19 apartments in the three-story building.

In conclusion: Scott Reynolds, you’re awesome. Thanks.


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News Tidbits 10/25/12: Harold Square Is Big, Boxy and…Big.

25 10 2012

Well, if I have any right to brag…I’m just going to leave this here. At least I have proven that I’m fairly good at what I write about.

Now, onto what’s actually important. This project is massive. There are few private non-institutional buildings to compare it to in Ithaca. Seneca Place is about as close as one gets dimensionally, but that building is retail, with office and hotel on the upper levels. Harold Square, with its $30 million price tag, will have 60 to 70 apartments, 126,000 sq ft of office space, and retail on the ground floor. At 11 floors and~135 feet, it is a rough tie with the other tallest non-campus building in the county, Titus Tower. As previously mentioned, a building that size would need a zoning variance.
The building would be situated on the Commons, and remove three under-utilized structures (red box): the former Race Office Supply Building, the Night and Day Building, and the former Harold’s Army-Navy Store between them. The developers’ father ran the Army-Navy store for over 30 years and renamed it after himself; and this is from which the project gets its name. The Home Dairy and Benchwarmers  (technically, the Sage Block and W.H. Miller Buildings; yellow box below) would be preserved and renovated.

The Commons Side of the building will be four stories of office, more conservatively designed to fit in with the other Commons structures. It’s fairly standard glassy box with a brick veneer, adding some interest by making the middle third 3 floors and the sides four floors. [Update 11/09] The low-res image below comes out of The Ithacan.

The other side…is something else. It would be easier to post renderings, but that’s not okay since the IJ became a subscribers-only site, and I’ll have to wait until a public/free outlet releases them. But I can offer one source – google “harold square ithaca”. The IJ was bound to let some image out for public eye, even if it isn’t for free access (Like with Cascadilla Landing, as soon as free use images become available, I will put them up here). Edit 11/08: And thanks again to the Ithacan for this rendering:

It’s…well, to me anyway…it’s not pretty. It’s big, certainly. But it’s a bit…out of place in Ithaca’s downtown, in my opinion. The design is by Chantreuil, Clark & Jensen of Rochester, who mostly do renovations, but do seem to get their blood flowing with the occasional modern new-build (most of their clients appear to be higher ed; no surprise here). It’s a little more avant-garde than the other modern boxes planned, like the Marriott, Holiday Inn and Cayuga Green. And I don’t know how well a box with a gigantic metal overhang above its top floor will age, let alone a giant exposed metal truss on the southeast corner.  The Commons side is appropriate enough, but I don’t find the south side, with the tower, especially eye-pleasing. Probably because it has misaligned windows, it’s already on my crap list. But, as anyone who’s followed this blog is aware, I’ve never been a huge of modern architecture. So, to each their own.

So, with regards to a time frame, the developer is looking to have the Commons side completed by summer 2014, and the tower at some date thereafter. The developer plans the construction of the building to coincide with the reconstruction of the Commons. That’s assuming it jumps through all the variances it needs, and the Planning Board appreciates modern architecture. If Collegetown Terrace was any indicator, this will not be the final design, so it’ll be worth seeing how this evolves before final site approval is granted.


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A New Proposal For Ithaca’s Downtown?

18 10 2012

This month’s planning board agenda doesn’t cover anything I haven’t already mentioned…except for one item giving a sketch plan (the first stage of proposals):

F. Harold Square (Downtown Mixed‐Use Project), David Lubin ― Sketch Plan

Okay, technically two items, because Wal-Mart Plaza (South Meadow Sqaure) wants to add more retail space. But this Harold Square project is far, far more intriguing.

A thorough search for any online documents for this project reveals as much as closing your eyes. However, David Lubin does have an appropriate background – he sits on the Downtown Ithaca Alliance and is employed as the President and CEO of L Enterprises, a real estate development firm based out of Elmira. Google Maps indicates it’s an LLC (Limited-Liability Company, a common feature of development firms) based out of a suburban office building next to the Arnot Mall, and likely developed several green-friendly chain hotels in the Elmira area. So, one could sum this up as the head of a medium-sized, regional developer.

“Downtown mixed-use” is a pretty tempting phrase. Mixed-use would likely be commercial, with residential on upper floors. The commercial may be hotel, as the developer has previously had experience with, or office, with service/retail on the ground floor. Depending on location and size of parcel, the building could legitimately reach 120 feet / 10-12 floors, but given that most of downtown Ithaca’s zoning is a little shorter, 60-100 feet, 5-8 floors (taller floor plates for commercial applications) would be more likely. This is potentially big project for the city, and certainly one to keep an eye on as it goes before the planning board next week.


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News Tidbits 9/28/12: No Seriously, I Love A News Deluge…

28 09 2012

I feel like a clearing house at the moment, but a bunch of little tidbits have been proposed/modified lately that merit a brief blurb before I return to non-newsy matters.

–67 new townhouses are proposed for the Eastwood Commons area, a relatively dense development out within the suburban neighborhoods south-southeast of Cornell.

The development consists of duplex-style townhomes with a couple of side streets, not new urbanist but definitely in the realm of nodal development. The town will be pleased.

Worth noting, the land needed for the developed is being bought from Cornell. One of the stipulations for this sale is that Cornell employees be given priority for sales; INHS may offer some programming assistance for CU employees with modest incomes.

News item number two comes out from the Ithacan, IC’s newspaper. The Hotel Ithaca project, which was rebranded to a Marriott, has released an updated rendering. While the cladding, roof-ware and entry area have been changed substantially, the building retains its general shape and configuration (however, the changes still need to be re-approved). The project is shooting for a March 2013 construction launch.

While I would prefer they keep the “Hotel Ithaca” theme with it’s Zinck’s-branded bar, I have no qualms about the proposed design – the lines are clean, vaguely modern, and it seems to fit in with the other recent development in the downtown area (this statement assumes homogeneity is preferable). Also, I’d like someone to explain to me all the tallish buildings in the background – are they attempting to make Ithaca look bigger, or attempting to make the building look smaller?

Last on the news wire is that the Collegetown Crossing project, the rather controversial six-story building proposed for the 300 block of College Avenue. The project has obtained an agreement to a 20-year lease from local grocery store co-op Greenstar. This is important for two reasons – the city and many local residents have expressed strong interest in a C-Town grocery store, and it also makes the project lass likely to be just another empty storefront. However, it’ll be a while before Greenstar has to worry about its second third location, since the project is still caught up in red tape with obtaining zoning variances, especially for parking. This project would likely not open until at least 2014, assuming it gets approved in the next few months.


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News Tidbits 9/21/2012: Building Something That’s “Typically Ithacan”

22 09 2012

While the city debates the details of the Collegetown Crossing and Cascadilla Landing projects, here’s a couple of new interesting little news tidbits from this month’s planning board agenda:

Planned Parenthood, the bane of most social conservatives’ existence, is building a new Ithaca (Southern Finger Lakes) facility. The two-story, 9,000 sq ft building will be built on half an acre of land occupying 616-626 West Seneca Street (WHCU claims 16,000 sq ft – I trust the planning board more). The new structure, its 27-space parking lot and landscaping will require the demolition of four homes. I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around the configuration of this, since the Iacovelli apartment building is going up next door, and AFCU’s new accessory lot on the vacant property on the corner of Fulton and Seneca. I had to check the photos I took last month to verify there were still two homes on the Seneca side of the proposed property, and since there are in fact two homes, I think the diagram below looks about right. The photo above is one of the homes, which I had initially intended in a gritty Ithaca photo blog entry somewhere down the line.

On to the other piece of news, INHS, the NPO developer of affordable housing in the city and town, is in the initial stages of its latest project, a 35-unit complex at 400 Spencer Street. This is on the edge of big box land, and the southern edge of residential Ithaca, in an area best described as low-density commercial/industrial hodge-podge. The project as proposed offers up two rows of townhomes (16 units), and a 3-story apartment building (19 units). INHS has been on a roll the past couple years, with the 39-unit Cedar Creek project completed, the 50-unit Breckinridge Place project downtown, and 11 townhomes underway in the town of Ithaca (with 11 more planned in a second phase of the “Holly Creek” project). This is in complement to their normal single-family renovation/new-construction work.

So, “affordable” housing projects, and a new building for Planned Parenthood. I’d say those fit the political interests of left-wing Ithaca fairly well.


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Scoundrel, or Scapegoat?

18 09 2012

The Sun’s piece regarding the problems with Jason Fane is nothing new. Previous articles over the past several years have done the exact same thing. I personally have never, ever been a fan of Jason Fane. So, since he is the (man? villain?) of the hour, I figured it was worth taking a look at the man who owns so much of Ithaca.

Jason Fane, from as far as I can tell, has been a major landlord in the Ithaca area since the mid-1970s. He is New York bred, holds a civil engineering degree from MIT and a Harvard MBA, and is about 70 years old. The recent Sun article notes that his tenants refused to pay rent in 1974, citing deplorable maintenance of his properties. In 1979, he feuded with the city building commissioner, who condemned one of his properties (with 15 occupants still living in it). An academic study of Ithaca compares quotes from him in 1975 to 2000, where he goes from saying “students aren’t interested in aesthetics” to students “are looking for quality”. By quality, we’re talking $1,400/month in rent. To be fair, Jason Fane knows his business…and for better or worse, he knows how to milk his stakeholders to his advantage.

Cornell has a fairly wealthy student body, such that extremely high rents are acceptable, as some students have the means (or rather, their families do) to afford such rates. Business owners, however, tend to be a different story. A student pays high rents because of proximity to Cornell and high quality of services. For a business, setting up in Collegetown means suffering a major lack of business during academic breaks, not to mention extremely high rents for choice, high-traffic locations…many of which are owned by Jason Fane. As long as the apartments are rented, Fane has no need to try and fill the commercial space, no matter how much students, residents and local officials complain. He’s still making a tidy sum from his residential units, and rather than cut prices to lure in shopkeepers, would prefer to wait until that day when someone is willing to pay his high price – because occasionally, someone will.

Let’s be clear – the man is rich. He owns a real estate empire that stretches from New York City to Toronto, where he is currently developing high-rise condo towers. For more proof, here’s an article where he goes to court over $850k in gold and silver bullion. He also isn’t afraid to weigh in on anything that may affect his business – he was a major opponent of the Cayuga Green apartment project, and he also tried to have the city building commissioner shut down Cornell’s temporary freshman housing in student lounges – presumably, because both had an impact on his business.  He is not the compassionate and caring businessman pro-commerce groups like to promote. In fact, a few other c-words – cold, calculating, and controlling – come to mind instead.
In all fairness, Mr. Fane is under no obligation to fill the space, unless he feels a need to deepen his pockets further. But it certainly isn’t doing him any favors in the communities he’s invested in. I guess when you own ten Collegetown properties, several more in downtown Ithaca, and a couple suburban properties, you can afford to do as you please.


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News Tidbits 9/12/2012: Reading Between the Lines

12 09 2012

I tend to look forward to the middle of the month, mostly because the new agendas are released for the Project Review Committee associated with the Ithaca Planning Board (and the first official news of new projects). Apart from this debatable unhealthy interest, I’ll sometimes check out the Planning and Economic Development Committee, not because it’s as interesting to me, but mostly because I’m trying to avoid another Cayuga Green screw-up from ever happening again. So, in engaging in my monthly routine, I looked to find that while nothing was posted yet for the planning board (meh, I can wait), a curious piece of news was embedded in the PEDC’s agenda.

There’s a note from the economic development planner asking for a brief revision in the description of waterfront zones. Waterfront zones are stated as five floors maximum, and in another section states a maximum height of 63 feet. She asks for it to be stated such that the building may be 63 feet max, or five floors. I like to imagine her busting out a magnifying glass for this trick.

 
Now, associated with this incredibly uninteresting detail is an interesting piece of news – the clarification was proposed because a property owner wishes to build a waterfront-zoned building within the 63′ height limit, but with more than five floors. Now, I double checked Cascadilla Landing, and the proposal calls for 5 floors maximum. So, unless something major changed, it’s not that project. This appears to be a new project, for a six-story building on/near the waterfront.

A couple of details can be gathered from this type of proposal. The project is likely six floors because 10′ is fairly standard for a residential development – anything less is rarely seen, due to material insulation/layering between floors, and some desire on the developer’s part  to have decent floor-to-ceiling space. Commercial entities generally have larger space requirements for equipment and space, along the lines of 12′-15′ per floor. So if I were a betting man, I’d wager a six story building, near the waterfront, all residential on the upper floors (the ground floor may have another use – perhaps a retail space with 12′ ceiling, for example). So in sum, I think the proposal for another large building on Ithaca’s waterfront may be in the works, and the densification of Ithaca’s waterfront continues.


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End-of-Summer Construction Update, Part II

24 08 2012

I felt a little more comfortable exploring the non-college part of Ithaca. For the most part. I bought an Ithaca Beer Company root beer at the downtown pharmacy, and because it came in a traditional beer bottle, I was concerned I’d be stopped by police for looking like I was violating open container laws. Rather than put up with that, I sat next to the ice cream counter and read the real estate section of the paper. The photos show would I did elsewhere.

I felt bad because I’ve largely ignored this project. Not purposely; it’s out of my normal search range – on the 600 block of West Seneca, near 13. The site was previous home to a service station and four homes, all of which were in poor condition. The project beings 17 units into a part of the city that has traditionally been one of the most overlooked Ithacan neighborhoods.

The new Fairfield Inn down in big-box land has had its foundation laid, and will likely be finished sometime in the spring. The hotel was approved last fall, and to be honest, I had expected this one to be further along than it was. When complete, the hotel will over another 106 rooms to the 1,800 or so currently within the Ithaca metro. On another note, the city expects a chain restaurant to be built next to the Panera Bread strip of buildings, with construction beginning in the fall.

Likewise on the progress for the Seneca Way project. For all the trouble it went through, I would hope it at least sees the light of day. The project seeks to build 32 apartments and some commercial space in a five story building on the site of the former Challenge Industries building. As for the Hotel Ithaca, no news as of late, and likely still stuck in funding limbo, a sign of our poor economic times. UPDATE 8/29/12: Apparently the Hotel is being reconfigured, switching from luxury hotel operator Gemstone Resorts to the Marriott brand. The number of rooms will be raised to 159, and the design will be slightly modified at base level. The height should remain the same. Re-approvals are required, but are not expected to be difficult to obtain. Construction is slated to begin next March, with foundation work during the winter.

Almost the same story here, except these two actually have funding arranged. The Holiday Inn expansion site in the top photo, the Cayuga Green lofts below. The Holiday Inn project started prep in July for the tear-down of the lowrise portion, to make way for a new 9-story building and conference center (I believe it was made one floor shorter from the original 10 stories, and stretched slightly longer to compensate for the loss of that floor space). The Cayuga Green project may have prep underway, judging from the equipment, but needs to start by the end of the year regardless to keep the city lawyers at bay.

And finally, one project that has made substantial progress, the Breckenridge Place Apartments on the site of the Women’s Community Building. The project will bring 50 units into downtown when completed next year.

This was a b*tch to take photos of. Most of the perimeter of the lot was covered in a black opaque tarp, tied so sceurely I had to lay on the ground and reach under it to get a photo through the fence. The front side was a bit easier. Completion should be sometime in mid-2014, although it looks like most of the exterior glass curtain wall is installed – which would place the project ahead of schedule.

Do as I say, not as I do: never take photos and try to drive on a crowded campus at the same time. But, I was running late. Tarp and foundation work underway at Gates Hall. For the curious, I stopped by the site for the Big Red Marching Facility, and the site was still pristine – this makes sense, since site prep doesn’t start until next month.

Now that screen lags my typing by about thirty seconds, I’d better but the kibosh on uploading any more photos in this entry. However, I do have the good fortune of having one my best friends accept a research position at Cornell, so I now have a legitimate excuse to visit Ithaca periodically for the next couple of years.


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End-of-Summer Construction Update, Part I

22 08 2012

I had the fortune this past weekend of being near Ithaca to attend a wedding. Deciding to kill two birds with one stone, I figured it was also a good opportunity to take photos of Ithaca’s ongoing construction. So I made the drive over and tackled as much as I could in three hours, all the while avoiding students, as if my aging is a contagious disease (mentally, this involved my brain screaming “Don’t look at me! I’m old! I was once like you, now I do quaint 20-something-year-old person things!”). Awkwardness aside, I was fairly successful in my photo tour.

The Belle Sherman Cottages project continues its prep work on the east side of on the edge of the city. The model house is complete and the roads have been laid. Despite the rather high prices, a casual inspection shows that at least two of the lots have been sold. In keeping with the theme of traditional streets, the street has been named “Walnut Street”, which is an interesting choice, since walnut trees can only grow in the moderated climate of the lake shore in these parts (same goes for peaches).

Phase II of the Coal Yard Apartments is complete. This phase brings to market 25 units, and ~40 beds.

Josh Lower’s Project (Collegetown Crossing) is tied up in red tape as it seeks a very generous parking variance. Meanwhile, the current building sits underutilized, and somewhat barren. Rather disturbingly, this was a trend around much of Collegetown, with many old storefronts, such as Mama T’s and CTP, having closed their doors. It gave the entire area a derelict, ghetto quality. Not to mention some of the houses and their treatment, which I’ll cover in a future entry.

The townhouses at 107 Cook have had their framework completed. As you might recall, 107 Cook was the site of a deadly house fire in May of 2011.

On a brighter note, 309 Eddy is complete. The building replaces a 3-story apartment house, and has 24 units with 41 beds. The building is tall enough to make an impact on the Collegetown skyline as seen from other parts of the city.

…and this image is a clue that Ithaca and the electrical authorities that be should consider burying the power lines under the street. Seriously.

The massive Collegetown Terrace project by Novarr-Mackesey. In Phase I, which was just completed, eight buildings were built (seven on East State, one on N. Quarry). This amounts to about 1/5th of the projects intended 1250 or so bedrooms. Parking is generally under the building on concrete stilts, which is bad in earthquake regions, but I suppose it works for seismically-inactive Ithaca. Some of the current buildings, such as the Delano House and the Valentine Apartments, are still standing and rented, waiting to be torn down in a later phase (III, I imagine). The Williams House is not yet renovated, serving as the site office while building continues. By my guess, building “3” from the development plans is Phase II, and is one of the long wavy buildings, specifically the one that sits closest to East State. Phase II is underway for a completion next summer, with phase III (the final phase) being completed in the summer of 2014. I suspect at that time, we’ll be hearing significant news about whatever N-M has proposed for all the properties they bought on the Palms block of Dryden Avenue – I expect something substantial, a la Collegetown Plaza.

Redevelopment of this mostly derelict and empty block would be a blessing at this point.

So, trying to break up my update into manageable chunks here (since the tech format here isn’t keen on photo-laden posts), I’ll post the rest of Ithaca and Cornell’s Campus later in the week.


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