Downtown Alive - An Advertising supplement to CITY Newspaper in partnership with the RDDC by CITY Magazine

DOWN TOWN ALIVE

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A CITY NEWSPAPER / RDDC PROMOTIONAL PUBLICATION

WELCOME TO

DOWNTOWN ALIVE!

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onumental developments in downtown Rochester are reshaping both our skyline and the urban landscape. The Genesee Riverfront, downtown’s Main Street, the blocks around Main and Clinton, and what was the Inner Loop are all being radically transformed. Significant public investment and visionary developers are creating stunning new urban spaces, and iconic institutions like The Strong are amplifying their impact. Looking back over the past year, three major stories stand out: 1) The state’s approval of $50 million in ROC the Riverway projects; 2) significant growth in the Downtown Innovation Zone (DIZ); and 3) redevelopment of the Inner Loop. In August, Governor Cuomo announced the approval of all 13 ROC the Riverway projects submitted by our community. The state’s $50 million will help fund Phase 1 (much of which is downtown) of a longer-term $500 millio plan to transform the Genesee riverfront. The Downtown Innovation Zone has become a major economic story. There are now 183 innovation and creative-class enterprises in the DIZ, up from 108 at the beginning of 2016. The new DIZ locations of New York Citybased LiveTiles, Silicon Valley-based EmployeeChannel, and the expansions of Datto, CGI Communications, and VisualDx will add nearly a thousand new innovation workers to downtown over the next five years. Five business incubators and accelerators that are open or in development around Main and Clinton are already creating a dynamism that is attracting

DOWNTOWN ALIVE Downtown Alive is a specialty promotional supplement produced by City Newspaper and CITY digital media in partnership with the Rochester Downtown Development Corporation.

new enterprises. These support centers include RIT’s Center for Urban Entrepreneurship, NextCorps (formerly High Tech Rochester/HTR); Luminate NY, the only international startup accelerator for optics, photonics, and imaging enterprises; ROC Game Dev, an incubator and shared space for indie video game developers; and The Commissary, the Rochester Downtown Development Corporation’s upcoming food-business incubator. In the Inner Loop Redevelopment, eight new projects are planned, and several have already broken ground. This amazing group of developer-investors includes Home Leasing, The Strong, Indus Hospitality Group, Howard Konar, Trillium, Christa Development, and Morgan Management. All of this is creating an energy level downtown not seen in more than half a century. You’ll read about some of these developments in this issue of Downtown Alive! – Heidi Zimmer-Meyer Zimmer-Meyer is president and CEO of the Rochester Downtown Development Corporation.

SALES DIRECTOR: Alison Zero Jones ART DIRECTOR: Ryan Williamson TEXT: Kathy Laluk CITY Newspaper 250 North Goodman Street Rochester, NY 14607 | 585-244-3329

The new downtown Rochester is all of these things. The votes are in. Join us for the first Downtown Definitely Awards Luncheon where we will celebrate all things downtown and announce the winners voted in, and honor the first ever Larry Glazer Award recipient – Nelson Leenhouts of Home Leasing.

DOWNTOWN DEFINITELY AWARDS LUNCHEON Thursday May 23rd 12:00 – 1:30 PM Holiday Inn Downtown 70 State Street

Email rddc@rddc.org or visit www.rochesterdowntown.com to make your reservation! A CITY NEWSPAPER / RDDC PROMOTIONAL PUBLICATION

CREATING A NEIGHBOHOOD OF PLAY

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he Strong National Museum of Play has been a major downtown attraction for decades, and with an expansion projected to be complete within the next two years, its importance is expected to increase. Work is underway on what will be a 90,000-square-foot project, aimed at extending the museum’s international reach and deepening its local economic impact. Construction began on the first phase of the project last year, when ground was

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broken on a new parking structure. That’s slated to be completed by this fall. Groundbreaking on the museum expansion portion – which will include additional space for existing and new exhibits, more storage for the museum’s collection, and classroom and flexible learning space – will happen this summer. Simultaneously, renovations to the current museum will begin, with the entire project expected to be complete by the summer of 2021. “The Strong has become such a vibrant part of the Rochester community,” says Steve Dubnik, CEO and president for the Strong. “We’re just excited to be able

to continue to grow and better serve the Rochester area.” The second floor of the expanded museum space will showcase new, one-of-a-kind exhibits, where guests can explore the history and influence of video games. That’s also where the World Video Game Hall of Fame and the museum’s Women in Games initiative will be located. The expansion will also include an outdoor space centered around play. There’ll be a high-zone ropes course, an expanded Discovery Garden, and unique outdoor play areas for children (and adults who are kids at heart). The museum is also adding space to let the children in Strong’s Woodbury School

Work has begun on a major development that will include not only an expansion of the Strong Museum but also outdoor play areas, a hotel, apartments, and a garage. Some apartments will be ready for occupancy in the fall. RENDERING COURTESY OF THE STRONG

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preschool programs plant vegetables and herbs – adding another unique learning experience for museum goers. In addition, due to demand from local schools and community groups, the Strong is adding more flexible education and workshop spaces for programs focused on play-based curricula. The expansion also includes a new café near the outdoor play areas and an expanded “welcome” atrium. In addition to serving as the “front door” for the museum, it will be able to accommodate larger receptions and community events. “This is really about reshaping the community to embrace play on all levels,” Dubnik says.

Strong is partnering with Konar Properties to build market-rate housing units and a mix of retail businesses. Indus Hospitality Group is also a partner and will build a national, family-friendly hotel and restaurant to accommodate out-oftown visitors, who are expected to have a $130 million economic impact once the expansion is complete. Konar’s development will include five buildings: the first, on Union Street, is under construction now, and will have residents moving in this fall. That’s when construction on the next two buildings will begin, with occupancy slated for summer of 2020. The last two buildings will be constructed on a new road (“Adventure Place”); work there is scheduled to begin in 2020, with tentative move-in dates for residents in the spring of 2021. The mixed-use development will include 237 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, with at least half designated as “affordable” under the city’s Affordable Housing Guidelines. There will also be twoand three-bedroom townhouses. Amenities will include high-speed fiber internet, two fitness centers, and finished outdoor spaces such as a rooftop deck and elevated plaza and patio area. Konar is also building limited underground and covered parking, as well as electric car charging stations. “We really see this as the future for Rochester,” Dubnik says. “By bringing learning, play, and living together, we think this will have a truly positive impact on our city.”

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The former department store on Main Street is being transformed into a vibrant mixeduse space called Sibley Square: apartments, office space, tech incubator space, and much more. FILE PHOTO

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REVITALIZING SIBLEY'S

BY KATHY LALUK

ince 1905, the Sibley's has been one of Rochester’s most recognizable structures. At 1.1 million square feet, the combined office tower and former department store is also the city’s largest downtown structure, giving developers ample room to revamp it into a space where people can live, work, learn, and play. By early next year, 1 million square feet of that space will be refurbished, revamped, and occupied by a diverse group of people, businesses, and services. It’s a trend happening across the city: While the conventional office market is weaker, innovative and creative spaces are thriving. It’s something that the WinnCompanies, which bought the building about seven years ago, is capitalizing on by turning the former department store into a vibrant mixed-use space called Sibley Square. Through 2017, the company invested more than $100 million to create 176 apartment units, flexible office space, classroom space, an art gallery, shared technology space, an industrial shared kitchen, restaurant space, and cutting-edge technology incubators. “We really had to think about ‘how are we going to position this building differently than other downtown office buildings?’” says Ken Greene, asset manager with WinnCompanies. “We decided we wanted to become a mixed-use community that represented the city at large, and its commercial space was going to be curated around innovation, education, and incubation.” By the time the vision is complete, Greene estimates around 2,000 people will live, work, learn, eat, and be entertained in the space each day. Already, two housing sections are open and at or near capacity: Spectra market-rate studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom spaces, and Landmark one- and two-bedroom fixed-income apartments for 55+ tenants. Construction on 104 Liberty Lofts (income adjusted-rate apartments) is underway, with hopes of having tenants move in by early 2020. Housing is a trend downtown, with more housing projects in the pipeline that’ll add nearly 2,000 new units in the city. continues

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Tenants in Sibley Square are already enjoying onsite fitness and media centers, as well as a dog park, and are taking advantage of the Rochester Childfirst Network daycare on the first floor. In December, RIT opened its City Art Space on Sibley’s ground floor. Formerly Gallery r, which was on Park Avenue, then College Avenue in the Neighborhood of the Arts, it serves as a space for RIT students and faculty to exhibit their work and as an additional downtown art gallery. Higher up, on the sixth floor, technology incubator Next Corps occupies 42,000 square feet. It currently has 45 member companies as well as finalists from its annual Luminate program, which allows start-up companies from around the world focused on photonics to compete for $2 million in funding. With innovation and incubation as two of the pillars for redeveloping Sibley, the tech component doesn’t stop there. By June, another tech-minded incubator and educator, Boundless Connections Technology Center, will open at Sibley. The group, based in Olean, will offer classes and guidance to people of all ages interested in programming, computers, and technology, with the hope of turning that knowledge into new companies and more jobs in our community. “We want 8 DOWNTOWN ALIVE

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to give opportunities to people to learn about different kinds of tech – no matter how old they are or what they already know,” says Hans Rasschaert, chief marketing officer for Boundless Connections. Roc Game Dev, which opened in the Sibley Worx co-working space in February, is dedicated to fostering a community of video and computer game creators. Founder Rob Mostyn saw the need to develop it after meet-ups and collaborations with other local game developers outgrew coffee shops, community rec cen-

In the transformation of Sibley’s to its new uses, developers have paid tribute to the building’s past by preserving important elements, including a sign on an exterior wall and the clock on the main floor. FILE PHOTO

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ters, and even space at RIT. Now almost two dozen paying members use the computers in the Roc Game Dev space, and upwards of 100 to 150 people attend free events to discuss ideas and work out bugs with other developers. “It’s such a great collaboration and meeting of the minds,” Mostyn says. “And to have it in our own space that’s so central to Rochester – it’s perfect.” “There’s a millennial energy that exists now, where people want to live, work, and play in the same space,” Ken Greene says. “The resurgence of Sibley’s being the melting pot of the community will be cap-stoned by the opening of the

Mercantile at the end of the year.” The Mercantile will be an open food marketplace on the first floor that will open with 10 businesses, ranging from Asian soups and sushi to fresh-made pasta and a coffee bar. To combat the challenges that aspiring restaurateurs face, the marketplace will require no minimum rent, no long-term leases, and no personal guarantees. “We want to be able to support entrepreneurs without them losing everything,” Greene says. The Mercantile is engineered to be able to expand to 14 spaces, all of which will have shared seating. Members of the Mercantile will have the opportunity to become a part of the Commissary, an RDDC-backed, first-in-the-state, fully licensed industrial kitchen and restaurant incubator. Slated to open by the end of 2019 or early next year, it will allow aspiring chefs, bakers, and restaurateurs to be trained in and rent time to work in a professional kitchen without the full expense of creating one themselves. By next year, the Commissary will offer cooking classes, as well as workshops about the food and restaurant industry for entrepreneurs. “Nothing individually is very innovative,” Greene admits, “but collectively, bringing all of these pieces together, the synergistic approach of the curation of the commercial community helps us to differentiate ourselves.” A CITY NEWSPAPER / RDDC PROMOTIONAL PUBLICATION

RIVER WALK:

NEW PROJECTS FOCUS ON THE GENESEE ///////////////////////////////////// BY KATHY LALUK

Roc the Riverway’s 13 individual projects are designed to let the public enjoy the riverfront in all seasons. The diverse developments include a skate park, top, and improvements to the Genesee Riverway trail. RENDERINGS COURTESY OF STANTEC (TOP) AND BERGMANN ASSOCIATES

ike many cities, for a long time Rochester ignored one of its most important attributes: the river that flows through its center. But that attitude is a thing of the past. And interest has intensified recently with the city’s Roc the Riverway initiative, which is designed to draw people to the waterway that helped make Rochester the Flour City. The initiative, which features more than two dozen development projects along the Genesee River, was conceived as a single concept to leverage the value of Rochester’s riverfront. Last year, 13 Roc the Riverway projects were awarded $50 million in funding from Empire State Development’s Finger Lakes Forward Initiative. The Riverway’s advisory board has also leveraged nearly $32 million in additional city, state, and other funding to help cover the $191 million cost of all the projects in the first phase. Last August, Mayor Lovely Warren and Governor Andrew Cuomo kicked off the first phase of the project by beginning the renovation of the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center. Among the changes there: creating a larger, more dynamic venue space for community events, overlooking the river. The widened terrace will also have room for art displays and pop-up retail. It’s part of the larger riverfront promenade system, which will become part of the Genesee Riverway Trail. On the western riverfront, the Charles Carroll Plaza renovation will create a link between Main Street and Andrews continues

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Improvements are planned at the Pont de Rennes bridge and surrounding areas. RENDERING COURTESY OF KEITH CRAWFORD ARCHITECTS

Street with ADA-accessible connections, improved lighting, and green spaces along the river. Roc the Riverway will also include improvements to the Pont de Rennes bridge and surrounding areas, including investments in High Falls Terrace park. City officials hope to add new lighting, picnic tables and grills, and other improvements, as well as removing barriers that restrict views of High Falls. They’re hoping to hold an international design competition to maximize the potential of these spaces. The project also calls for a feasibility study for creating public access to the roof of the former RG&E hydrostation. At Blue Cross Arena, Phase I of Roc the Riverway includes creating a riverside restaurant or bar as well as expanded concession areas to provide more dynamic views of the river. That ties directly into the Aqueduct Re-imagined aspect of the initiative, which will remove the vehicular deck of the Broad Street Bridge to open up the former aqueduct and subway bed. What will go in its place is still being discussed, but ideas for the new aqueduct include a fully re-watered replica of the Erie Canal, a multi-faceted green space, or some combination of those elements. After at least a decade of discussions, plans for the ROC City Skate Park are finally coming to fruition, thanks to the funding secured by the city. Ground will be broken this year on the project, which will be adjacent to the Genesee Riverway Trail at the Douglass-Anthony Bridge, with access from South Avenue. Daniele Lyman-Torres, commissioner of recreation and youth services, says the city worked closely with the local skate community and with a designer and 12 DOWNTOWN ALIVE A CITY NEWSPAPER / RDDC PROMOTIONAL PUBLICATION

former pro skateboarder to come up with elements for both beginners and expert skaters. In addition to having open space and small ramps for new skaters, there will be double-flow bowls and stair rails that go underneath the Douglass-Anthony Bridge for advanced skateboarders. “We have a large community of people” who want to use a skate park, Lyman-Torres says. “People have been skating downtown at the Liberty Pole and other places for years. With skateboarding coming up in the next Olympics, it’s something we want to expose our young people to, and we have not had a venue to do that yet.” The goal is to have the park open to the public sometime in 2020, but construction and progress will depend largely on the weather. Once the park is open, city officials hope to host skating competitions and, potentially, even musical performances. South of the Skate Park, improvements are also planned for Corn Hill Landing. Corn Hill Navigation, which operates the Sam Patch Erie Canal tours, is working with the city on this part of the project. CHN leaders expect it to be a tourist attraction, and they also hope to partner with the Rochester school district on student field trips focused on history, ecology, and environmental stewardship. On the east side of the river, along Mt. Hope Avenue, the city plans to redevelop the Genesee Gateway park to visually and physically connect the river to surrounding neighborhoods. Renovations will include benches, open space for playing, and access to the river for non-motorized boats such as paddle boats. Once completed, the city plans to use the area to host the South Wedge Farmers Market.

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Two big events – the Jazz Festival in June (top) and Fringe in September – bring big crowds downtown. And three newer events – Midtown Eats (bottom photos), Roc Holiday Village, and ROC the Taste are doing the same. JAZZ FESTIVAL PHOTO COURTESY CGI ROCHESTER INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL, PHOTO BY PETER PARKS MIDTOWN EATS PHOTOS COURTESY JACQUELINE DALEY PARNELL 14 DOWNTOWN ALIVE A CITY NEWSPAPER / RDDC PROMOTIONAL PUBLICATION

NEW EVENTS DRAW CROWDS DOWNTOWN ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// BY KATHY LALUK

ochester is a festival town. From mid-May through Labor Day, there’s no shortage of full-tilt celebrations around the region to enjoy. And several newer festival-like events are attracting people to Rochester’s downtown. One of the easiest ways to draw a crowd seems to be simple: have food. Last summer, ROC the Taste capitalized on that idea, bringing dozens of local food vendors to Parcel 5 for two days. Vendors offered $1 samples as well as regular menu items. Attendees were able to enjoy their purchases in good conscience, too; a portion of the proceeds from the event went to the Wilmot Cancer Institute and Honor Flight Rochester. Details haven’t been announced about the beneficiaries

for this year’s ROC the Taste – scheduled for Friday, July 26, and Saturday, July 27, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. – but there will again be music and free admission. (Visit rocthetaste.com for updates.) Two years ago, Midtown Eats brought a restaurant row of Rochester-area restaurants into the heart of downtown. On the first and third Thursdays and Fridays of the month between June and August, a wide variety of food is offered at pop-up restaurant spaces near Tower280. Lunch is available from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. both days for those who work or live in and around downtown. Midtown Eats also offers evening hours on the Friday dates, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Visit rochesterevents.com/ midtown-eats for a full list of Midtown Eats dates and vendors for 2019.

Summer isn’t the only time that outdoor events are being staged downtown. Over 11 days and nights last winter, roughly 120,000 people came downtown for the inaugural Roc Holiday Village. “It totally exceeded our expectations,” says Jenna Knauf, who is co-founder and producer of the event with Sean McCarthy and Kelli Marsh. “We were blown away by just how popular it was. People just took to it.” The event, held at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, included visits with Santa, Hanukkah and Kwanza celebrations, crafts, local artisans and a market for gift shopping, ice skating, live music, food, and pop-up igloos for private parties with beverage and food service. Knauf and her co-organizers looked to similar types of events in other big cities for inspiration. “We thought, ‘why not here? Why not Rochester?’” Knauf says. And city

officials, she said, were “so supportive in making this a reality.” They hadn’t anticipated how popular it was going to be. More than 700 Breakfast with Santa tickets sold out within a day. The number of ice skaters at the Martin Luther King, Jr. park rink went from about 5,400 for the season in 2017 to 52,000 in 2018 (thanks in large part to free skating during the Roc Holiday Village). This year, they will be expanding the experience, adding more seating, more igloos, more spots for vendors, more popup performances by carolers. The Roc Holiday Village will be held this year on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from December 6 to December 29. They’ll also be doing a special New Year’s Eve celebration on December 31, in conjunction with the City of Rochester. For updates on that as they are announced, visit rocholidayvillage.com.

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