There’s
at least one potential downtown project whose fate isn’t hinging upon the
transit center. And its impact on the Center City could be far greater than
anything else in the works.
Monroe Community College is eying
the corner of West Main Street and South Plymouth Avenue as the future home to
its new Advanced Technology Education Center, a complete downtown campus that
would be built from the ground up and offer instruction, but not housing, to
between 2,500 and 3,500 students.
“My sense is that their vision is
going to be extremely powerful, and is going to change the face of the
community,” says Rochester Downtown Development Corporation President Heidi
Zimmer-Meyer, who recently met with MCC President Thomas Flynn to discuss the
college’s plans. “They’ve got a very interesting and ambitious concept. They’re
going to have to go through whatever process is required by their institution
to move forward. But should it move forward. There is tremendous potential to
expand a whole section of downtown.”
While MCC’s board of directors still
has to vote on the site, and SUNY has to give MCC final approval for the
selection, Flynn says Main and Plymouth “has leading candidacy.”
The college is also waiting to hear
about funding for the $62.8 million project, which will be split evenly between
the county and the state. If the funding comes through, MCC hopes to have the
project finished within six years. The Technology Center is at the top of the
college’s list of priorities, Flynn says.
Even if the college winds up finding
an alternate site, the Tech Center will still be a new construction project.
“We’re talking about building a
whole campus,” Flynn says. “We’re talking about starting from scratch and
building a facility, not trying to renovate something for the college. We want
to build something that will meet our needs.”
Flynn says the Main-Plymouth site’s
distance from any other proposed downtown projects, like the possible transit
and performing arts centers, also makes it attractive. Among the other
positives are “ease of access” and the fact that the west side of downtown is
“a growth area.”
Many high-tech office and
residential spaces have been filled in that partof downtown over the
past five years. And while both Flynn and Zimmer-Meyer decline to discuss
details on the Technology Center project, Flynn says “we’re talking about a
campus that’s going to be built there to serve the citizens in that area and to
serve the businesses in that area, and our city, for 100 years or more.”
When City spoke with Zimmer-Meyer just prior to her meeting with MCC,
she said she hoped the college would explore other alternatives to building a
new site at Main and Plymouth. A new downtown campus would cause MCC to pull
the Damon Center out of the Sibley Centre. Right now, the Damon Center is one
of the main tenants left in Sibley, whose owners, Rochwil Associates, owe the
city $6.9 million in taxes, delinquent loan balances, and interest.
Flynn says when the college renewed
a five-year Sibley lease with Rochwil last year, he advised the building’s
owners that “we were moving forward with this, and everybody should be made
aware of that. And there’s a five-year notice.” (MCC has options to extend its
Sibley lease as needed.)
During his meeting with
Zimmer-Meyer, Flynn says, “Basically, the point I was trying to make is that
anything we build downtown is good for downtown, regardless of where we build
it. The Main and Clinton area will not live or die based on what Monroe Community
College does.”
Zimmer-Meyer says she came away from
her meeting with the college “blown away.”
“They have looked at other options,”
she says. “And I’m confident that their process has been extremely carefully
researched. I’m a very skeptical and careful deliberator when it comes to major
change downtown. But I have such confidence in their ability to do the right
thing for the community. And I don’t say that lightly.”
Politics
vs. projects
Asked
for her perspective on the two options being floated for a new downtown transit
center, Zimmer-Meyer says the Rochester Downtown Development Corporation isn’t
nearly as concerned about location as it is about”the process by which
the community is making these decisions breaking down a long time ago.”
Rochester, she says, has developed a
reputation for politicizing large public projects. “We don’t have the exhibited
ability to come together behind a short list,” she says. “We have a reputation
for not being able to work together as a community. It’s hurt us in Washington
and it’s hurt us in Albany. So we’d better get past that. It happened with the
fast ferry. It happened at the beginning of the performing arts center process.
And it’s happening with the transit center. That whole situation broke down on
the basis of personalities and politics. And I think it’s become far more
divisive on both fronts than it should be.”
So what’s it going to get past all
of this?
“It’s going to take leadership with
a different point of view,” she says. “The mindset of the region is changing
anyway, and that’s forcing a lot of players to do business differently. That
kind of change is why you have [Rochester Business Alliance CEO] Tom Mooney
coming out and saying we need to consider consolidating the county and city
governments. That never would have happened two years ago. Change is being
demanded. Corporate players are saying this is not the way we want to see
things done.”
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2003.
