Given the previous re-design for Harold’s Square, I’m willing to accept this. The glazed curtainwall banding on the south face makes it a little less brutal on the eyes.
Ithaca Builds notes that the developers hope to have fencing up (i.e. initiating site prep) by Labor Day, for completion in late April 2015.
Image property of Welch Construction Inc.
Following up on Ithaca Times and Ithaca Builds, the big development news of the week is that a potential buyer is about to close on the Emerson Power Transmission property on South Hill. The discussions have been going on for quite a while; the last Emerson entry I wrote six months ago notes that a member of the Chamber of Commerce was dropping hints that negotiations for the sale of the property were ongoing.
The “sleeping giant” term the Times uses is certainly fitting. At nearly 94 acres and 800,000 square feet of space, the property is one of the most massive in the Ithaca metro. For the sake of comparison, the Collegetown Terrace project is redeveloping 12.4 acres (with another 4 acres of apartments being left as-is), has 610 units and about 629,000 square feet. Certainly, zoning would allow for demolition and reconstruction to suit the developer’s plan, and for this market, the possibilities are comparably limitless.
The article notes that the buyer has 12 to 18 months to choose to execute the purchase option, but they’ve committed for the time being by paying out for a multi-million dollar master plan and feasibility study. Given the span of the site, it’s no big surprise that the developer is looking into mixed use, with some residential components, and some industrial/manufacturing components. With 94 acres, there’s definitely a wide range of possibilities, and buildout will take years. But a redevelopment of Emerson could effectively mark an expansion of downtown Ithaca southward.
It appears Ithaca’s development boom has some big projects still coming down the pipeline. Or more links in the chain, if you will.
Back during my own Cornell days, I can remember an incident where over Spring Break my freshman year, my fraternity (I was pledging at the time) had one of its code-key locks substantially damaged, which given that it looked like it was attacked with a blunt object, we assumed was an attempted burglary. It is no big surprise that wealthy Cornell students have a habit of leaving expensive things in their rooms, and that with a cunning and conniving mind, those things can easily end up in the hands of a thief. Luckily in our case, the thief gave up and went elsewhere (although we had a $300 grill stolen right off the property not long after I graduated).
That is why stories like this don’t surprise me. From the Ithaca Independent:
Two suspects have been arrested in the Sunday burglary of 55 Ridgewood Road, home of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house. Ithaca police were called to the address after a resident returning home caught a burglary in progress.
Using a description of the two suspected burglars and the vehicle they used to leave the scene with a list of stolen items, a 28-year-old Lansing woman and a 35-year-old Elmira man were arrested Monday…(cont.)
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The cops only found the burglars because the two were reported to the police for a domestic incident, and left in their truck. They essentially gave themselves away, since they and the vehicle matched the description provided by the witness.
In sum, although Ithaca is generally safe city, Greek houses would do well to limit access over breaks, and for its members to discreetly make use of a strongbox for valuables.
Over at Breckenridge Place, the installation of the brick facade is nearing completion, and some of the windows have been installed in the six-story building. Originally slated for occupancy this fall, it looks like this has been pushed back a few months to very early 2014, according to the INHS website. This seems reasonable, as the vast majority of interior work still needs to be completed, not to mention the rest of the facade, window installation, and finishes/landscaping. An application lottery is underway for qualifying individuals.
Looks like I can mark Collegetown’s 107 Cook Street as complete. Developer Dan Ligouri’s four units (12 bedrooms) will welcome their first tenants this summer (June/August thereabouts). Replacing it in the queue of small residential projects, local nonprofit INHS will be launching construction on a 4-unit townhome project at the sharp corner of South Cayuga and South Titus Streets, just south of downtown. This is in addition to the aforementioned Breckenridge, a few rebuilds/renovations they have underway and the second phase of the Holly Creek townhomes, which will add another 11 units to be completed in late 2014.
Ithaca makes this almost too easy. Ithaca Builds has been keeping tabs on the Planned Parenthood development, where foundation work is underway. The other two won’t start for a few more months.
It sure is odd to see a treeless Ithaca Commons. Excavation and utilities replacement will be underway through December, with reconstruction and new surfacing planned for next spring and summer.
Next on my tour was a stop at the Belle Sherman Cottages to make a progress report.
With four homes complete (Lots 1, 7, 8, and 14), one under construction (Lot 2), and one in site prep (Lot 19), the 29-unit development (19 homes, 10 townhouses) is beginning to resemble a settled neighborhood from a few very select angles.
103 Walnut Street (Lot 2) is currently underway, and will be completed in the next couple weeks. Only three of the five styles are represented so far, the Victorian and Craftsman-style farmhouses have yet to be built.
Lot 19 is tucked in the sharply-angled northern corner of the parcel, necessitating Agora LLC to insert the road extension. This extension is also where the townhouses will be built, although I’m not sure when they will start construction on those (i.e. what the sales thresholds are). Several lots are listed for sale with local RE agencies.
As noted at Ithaca Builds, these homes are built using modular pieces, which when done right can result in a quick turnaround from prep to construction to completion. It is likely the bungalow slated for Lot 19 will be completed by early fall, just as construction season starts to slow down in Ithaca.
As noted in the Ithaca Times, the eco-conscious folks who developed the Aurora Street Pocket Neighbrohood have a new proposal in the works. The location for this one, however, isn’t as urban – the site is located off of Five Mile Drive, just west of Elmira Road and the southwest area’s suburban big-box land (fun fact – the road starts at an intersection with Elmira Road five miles from the shores of Cayuga Lake, hence the name). This general area has seen a sizable number of single-family homes built in the past decade, though nothing multi-unit like the proposal.
Speaking of which, the basic stats – ~36 units, “craftsman” style homes 1-2 floors, single or 3-unit properties depending on preference, and a common house/community center. Enough of seems to be up in the air style-wise that New Earth Living is asking interested parties to fill out surveys or email them, so they can flesh out their proposal. Style-wise, we already have a good idea what this might look like by looking at the Aurora Street Pocket Neighborhood, which consists of one renovated home and 4 units in three newly-built properties tucked in from the corner Aurora and Marshall. Green construction, solar panels, LED lighting, food grown on property, but no true farm on the property, and units are clustered but still separate – in some ways, this project seems like a toned-down version of Ecovillage.
Ithaca has a lot of folks that lean far left, and a lot of development going on as of late. This seems like a pretty natural outcome of those two forces. Hopefully, this will be a project the community can get excited about as it moves forward.
So the folks in Cayuga Heights are getting in on the development game. In this case, local developers are interesting in taking one of the few mixed-use areas of the wealthy bedroom community, and densifying it.
The focus of this proposal is the Community Corners area, the small, mostly commercial parcel next to the awkward intersections of Triphammer, Hanshaw and East Upland Roads. According to the Ithaca Journal, Most of the new construction would be focused on the grassy parcel at lower left, while some of the buildings already exist would be expanded upon with additional floors, such as the Island Fitness in the lower left of the commercial patch. The two parcels, although owned by separate groups (The Ciaschi Family, the same ones for whom the corner of College and Dryden is named, own Community Corners; the grassy parcel by Mark Mecenas). Notably, this building only finished renovation last year; the bank in the lead image and the two-story office building at Triphammer and Upland are only about three years old.
Incorporated into the proposal – more lower-level retail and office space, and about 100 units of housing, up to four floors in height. this would require a zoning variance, as the maximum height for Cayuga Heights is about 30 feet. The design thrown out there is from (Larry) Fabbroni Associates, who tend to be called on much more to discuss the civil engineering aspects of development projects rather than actual designs. I prefer to think of the above designs as more of a scheme than anything concrete.
Oh look, they even threw the vaguely hipster-like musician in there! How quaint!
Mecenas notes in the IJ article that build-out for this project would likely take a few years, and that’s after the village approves the zoning changes. But, a pedestrian-friendly mid-rise core to Cayuga Heights would definitely make it feel more like its own community rather than a wealthy branch of the Ithaca tree.
I have never understood, nor will ever try to understand, the fascination some have with invading the privacy of young college women in their apartments. A recent Cornell Sun article notes a case where a former Cornell student entered two apartments in the 312 College Ave. apartment building uninvited. These apartments were occupied by female students, who screamed and/or confronted the guy, causing him to flee. Apart from the obvious threat a guy like this poses, I couldn’t help but think that events like these have been going on for a while now.
My first thought was the “Collegetown Creeper”, a story that I already knew from when I was growing up north of Syracuse, because that’s how much of a media sensation it was. The creeper was tied into at least 18 cases, occurring in 2003 and 2004. Most of the earlier ones were cases of peering through windows into the apartments of young females. Then the creep factor was kicked up a notch in early 2004 when he would break in and watch them sleeping. By the end of his reign of terror, he had graduated to full-blown sexual abuse. At least one victim claimed her clothes were cut off and baby oil was poured onto her. As one might imagine, this created quite a stir, and by the fall of 2004, students were protesting outside Common Council meetings, demanding further action be taken on the issue.
The creeper was eventually arrested in late October 2004. The suspect was identified as Abraham Shorey, who at 23, a married father of six, and sporting Rastafarian-style dreads, seemed as unlikely a sexual criminal as any. Shorey was familiar with the Collegetown area and its crowds, as he worked as a cook over at The Nines. Before his arraignment on charges of burglary and sexual abuse, Shorey posted bail and fled the area. He managed to avoid arrest on two occasions by producing fake IDs throughout his time as a fugitive. He was finally arrested a year later in San Diego, where he plead guilty to assault with intent to rape a San Diego County woman in May 2005. DNA evidence collected at the scene of the San Diego incident linked him as the perpetrator of the events in Ithaca from the previous two years. His sentence in California is seven years and four months, but the charges against him in New York were dropped for a number of reasons (time elapsed, difficulty locating witnesses, etc.)
Unfortunately, much worse has also occurred. Although technically not Collegetown, a 25-year old graduate student was raped and murdered near North Campus in May 1981, her body then dumped into the gorge. Her killer would graduate and go on to commit seven more murders in downstate NY and CT before being arrested.
Ignoring all the insensitive jokes students make about “forcible touching” here, female students at Cornell have every reason to be concerned for their safety, in the past, now, and for the foreseeable future.
With over 2,500 housing units planned within the county, and only so many increasingly spendthrift college students to exploit, local developers kinda need further justification to launch into such a building boom. The census is certainly supportive of their plans.
Following the new April 2012 census estimates (file here), from April 2010 to July 2012, Tompkins County has likely added another 990 residents, bringing the local population to 102,554. Interestingly enough, Tompkins and the bordering counties serve as a little growth pocket in otherwise declining upstate New York – Broome County, home to Binghamton, lost the most residents of any county, with about 2,540 shipping out, a drop of 1.3%. The largest increases upstate came in from Jefferson County (home to the growing Fort Drum), and Saratoga County (home to the very large and very new computer chip plant), with Tompkins in third with 1.0% growth. Given the 5.2% growth of the last decade, Tompkins is on par with its growth rate in the 2000s.
I should issue the token disclaimer that there are estimates, and the actual numbers can be a surprise when they come out in 2020. For instance, it was thought in the 2000s that Onondaga County/Syracuse lost 4,000 people over the decade – they gained 9,000. And I’m not sure how much I believe the rapidly suburbanizing Dutchess County, which hasn’t lost population since the 1890s, is believed to have lost people over the two year span. For Tompkins County in 2010, the original estimates were too high by a little over 200 (an error of about 4%). Also, perhaps this comes as no surprise, the New York portion of the New York metro added about 160,000 people, cementing their belief that they are the center of the world and the rest of us just live in it.
Two of the numbers I like to throw around for a housing unit is that Tompkins averages 2.4 occupants for non-college housing, 2.0 for college housing. If we use that 990 figure, it can be broken down to 413 traditional units or 495 college student units – and that’s additional units required in two years, in a county already experiencing a housing shortage. I’d say builders have all the justification they need for development in the near-term.
A superstitious part of me can’t help but feel like I jinxed something when I wrote about cancelled projects in the Ithaca metro not long back. The latest victim is particularly unfortunate – Collegetown Crossing, the six-story mixed-use project proposed for the 300 block of College Avenue, in an area sorely in need of redevelopment.
In this case, the fault was not the developer’s. The Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) thought the project was asking for too much with its parking variance (there were lot size variances as well, but those are not the issue here). As much as I hate to admit it, I’m not surprised, as the variance was for 95% less parking than required, which is a steep order to ask for, even with the community benefits and the proposed mitigation. Granted, I tend to be a bit cynical when I think about details such as the head of the zoning board being a stakeholder in a competing developer, but the primary drivers of the rejected variance were permanent residents who felt that students would try and smuggle their cars and park on their streets several blocks away (and this I can’t argue with – I personally feel that there are many Cornell students that walk around with a sense of entitlement, and would think that they’re being “clever” and “beating the system” by bringing their cars and trying to be discreet about it). The phrase “dead in the water” is fairly appropriate, because the project cannot move forward unless the parking is added (unlikely) or the city amends its parking requirements (slightly more likely, but this would take a support of the Common Council, and a stretch of time to be approved and implemented).
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On a slightly more optimistic note, the IJ notes that $250 million in private development is underway in 71 large projects and a number of smaller works through FY 2015. Notably, following the breakdown, the vast majority of these are apartment and hotel projects, with another chunk under the vague title of “mixed-use” – proof that tourism and education are big drivers locally. Of these, 30 are in Ithaca City and 18 are in the town; I can guarantee at least half are discussed on this blog, most with renderings. Lansing reports another 18 projects, most of which could be broken down into three categories: apartments and retail near 13, housing developments (of which I’m aware of about 5 off the top of my head), and projects tied into Lansing Town Center. The article never defines what constitutes a major project, and this could be responsible for some of the discrepancy in the number of projects.
Off the cuff, I don’t write about single-family housing developments for three reasons – suburbia tends to look fairly homogenous, I’m not a fan of sprawl, and they take years to build out anyway. The article notes 516 residential lots in some phase of execution. Give me a Kentlands–style proposal and I’ll get the keyboard a-tapping.
Of further interest, 27 are purely apartment projects, with about 2,100 units. This doubles the number I estimated a couple months back. Some of this is because I only counted Ithaca proper, which was Ithaca city and town, Cayuga Heights, and Lansing village. Adding the 72 units in Dryden’s Poet’s Landing, the 75 units proposed with the Boiceville Cottage expansion in Caroline, and the few hundred units in Lansing town’s Town Center definitely bring the two figures two closer. The project in Danby I think is a factory consolidation.
Of the 4 hotels and 450 rooms – offhand, there’s the 106-room Fairfield Inn, the Holiday Inn addition (13 new rooms in gross or 195 newly built rooms, depending on your perspective), the Hotel Ithaca and its 160 rooms, and maybe the Hampton Inn proposal for 92 rooms, but the combined room total is off, so I dunno what’s being counted.
It’s a boom by most standards, and certainly welcome from the perspective of this blog. I just hope to avoid seeing more projects end up “dead in the water”.
Ithacating in Cornell Heights 