Can an Italian-themed shopping center help restore MidtownPlaza to its former glory? City
leaders seem to think so.
Riedman Properties LLC and the Province of Parma, Italy, are
proposing a joint venture to create a complex consisting of 150 specialty stores
and restaurants offering Italian food, fashion, and furniture. The project,
called Made in Italy,
would use about 400,000 of the mall’s 1.2 million square feet. Riedman
Properties would develop the project, while officials in Parma
would buy the Midtown space, finance the development, and lease out the space.
The project would include remodeling the old McCurdy’s and Midtown
buildings, with storefronts facing the interior. The plan does not include the
old B. Forman’s building, which now houses Peebles.
Riedman firms already have investments in downtown Rochester.
Riedman Development owns 45-47 East Avenue,
and Riedman Agency owns 25 East Avenue.
(Riedman officials did not return City Newspaper phone calls requesting
additional information on the plan.)
A City Hall press release called the project “far from being
finalized.” But city officials are openly enthusiastic. “We see this as a catalyst
for the development of the rest of Midtown,” City Hall spokesperson Gary Walker
said late last week. “The city wanted to have something in place that we could
build on.”
The city has entered into a non-binding agreement with Parma
to explore the development. A six-person steering committee will oversee that
process: three members appointed by Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy and three appointed
by the president of Parma.
The city had already secured an option to buy Midtown from its
current owner, and it hired Bergmann Associates to do a structural inspection.
If the city exercises its purchase option, it will control who ultimately buys
Midtown.
The intent with any Midtown development, says Walker,
is for taxpayers to have minimal financial involvement. “Even though we have
taken the step of having the option in place to buy Midtown, we do not want to
be owners or managers,” says Walker.
“It’s almost impossible to say there will be no involvement from the public
sector, because almost any downtown project requires some. But our goal is to
have it privately funded and managed.”
After years of
decline, can a large retail development in downtown Rochester
succeed?
Apparently developers like Riedman are beginning to think
so.
Midtown was built when suburban development was in its early
stages, notes Malachy Kavanagh, vice president of the International Council of
Shopping Centers, a commercial real-estate industry association. Kavanagh says
it has become especially hard to build big
malls in the suburbs, so developers are beginning to eye urban centers that
have gone through decades of neglect.
“The industry is maxed out building [malls] in the suburbs,”
says Kavanagh. Initially, “land was a lot less expensive, and these communities
did not have anywhere near the zoning and building regulations that they do today,
making it very hard to build and adding some risk to it that wasn’t there 30
years ago. That was the whole attraction: you could buy the land cheap and do
what you want.”
But what about the potential for theme-driven retail? Theme
retail developments can look and feel implanted, with no historical relevance
to the community. Kitschy and out of place, they can quickly bore locals and
require droves of tourists to survive.
“It’s an interesting question, whether the Italian theme
will work,” says Heidi Zimmer-Meyer, president of the Rochester Downtown
Development Corporation. Some theme-type restaurants “have a short shelf-life,
three years or so,” she says. “But look at Dinosaur Barbeque. They have been
here for a while and are still doing quite well. I think the key is that any
mall has to refresh its vendors. But in this type of mall, it is especially
important, because you wouldn’t want people to think that they have been there
once and they don’t need to go back.”
The Italian theme would tap into the cultural interests of Rochester’s
huge Italian population, notes Zimmer-Meyer, and it could attract visitors from
Buffalo, Syracuse,
and the Southern Tier.
“If this project does move forward, we are talking about
something that is very original,” says Zimmer-Meyer. “The mayor has compared it
to the DisneyEpcotCenter, and if that’s the case, we
can’t handle the marketing the way we did with the ferry. We have to do a much,
much better job of marketing Rochester in a way that leverages off of all the
attractions that we have — Strong Museum, the Eastman House, Artisan Works,
Garth Fagan, the wine country. How would anyone know that we have all of this
to do here?”
Retail has historically been dependent on local shoppers, says
Kavanagh, but the field is changing dramatically. With the popularity of the
internet, he says, the job of attracting shoppers to malls is different than it
was 10 years ago. And theme malls are finding a niche.
Kavanagh, who is familiar with Upstate New York, says a theme
mall might be successful in Rochester.
But he has some qualifiers: it will require a design that creates a total
experience. And don’t expect a mall by itself to drive tourism, he says. It should
instead be part of what he calls the “culture mix” that draws people to
downtown renewal areas.
“Malls as tourist attractions: I would say there hasn’t been
much of that until recently,” says Kavanagh. “There is a trend that has started
in some cities like Vegas, Miami,
and Los Angeles that already have
huge tourism economies where theme retail has done very well. But they are
exceptionally designed and conceptually unique. Look, you
have people in Vegas standing there getting their photos taken next to the EmpireStateBuilding.
They know they aren’t in New York City,
but they are having the Big Apple experience.
I don’t think it’s what drew them to Vegas, but it is clearly an attraction.”
Redeveloping Midtown won’t be a simple project. The plaza consists of five buildings and an
1800-space underground garage. It was built in 1962, and is in need of repairs.
And hazardous materials such as asbestos and lead paint were used in its
construction.
“We know the remedial work at Midtown is daunting,” says
Zimmer-Meyer, “but it is not unusual for a project of this scale.”
“We’ve had inspectors who have been asked to look at the
structures from an engineer’s standpoint, going beyond what you can see from
the outside,” says Deputy Mayor Patricia Malgieri. And, she says, “The
investors have looked at the preliminary reports and are still interested.”
Also an issue: control of the Midtown garage, which the city
owns.
“We have to make sure that the underground parking garage
remains open to everyone in that area, because it is vital to all of those
buildings,” says Malgieri. “We couldn’t have something where only the people
who are going to the shopping center are allowed to use it.”
Zimmer-Meyer is concerned about the short window on the
city’s option to buy Midtown. It expires in mid-February.
The city “may have to look at purchasing it,” she says, “because
if it expires and there is known interest in it, the terms could keep changing.”
While Kavanagh is not as bullish as Zimmer-Meyer is about a
theme mall becoming a regional tourist destination, he is bullish about mixed
commercial use for downtown.
“There is a growing interest in returning to these abandoned
urban centers for the culture, the nightlife, and the excitement,”
he says. “Just as you have these suburban towns saying no to more development,
you’ve got city mayors aggressively courting it. And multi-use is the buzz
right now. It’s not one thing or the other. You can’t build new lofts,
townhomes, and condos downtown without something for people to do once they get
there. It’s got to be something more than what the suburbs already offer. And
if it’s going to include retail, there’s so much competition that it’s got to
be unique.”
Doyle in the mix?
Former Monroe County Executive Jack Doyle is apparently involved
in the Midtown Riedman-Parma project.
The Rochester Business Journal, which broke the Midtown
development story on December 29, reported that Doyle is connected to the
project, but didn’t say how. Doyle is known to be close to John Riedman, chief
executive of Riedman Corporation. David Riedman, John Riedman’s son, is chief
executive of Riedman Development.
“Doyle was mentioned in a release by Parma
officials earlier this year that noted initial talks with officials in WestchesterCounty where a Made in Italy
project was considered,” wrote the RBJ’s Mary Stone.
When City Newspaper asked Deputy Mayor Patricia Malgieri about
Doyle’s involvement, she answered: “If he’s involved, that would be a question
for Mr. Riedman.” (The Riedmans didn’t return City Newspaper phone calls.)
Doyle was recently sighted at City Hall, however. And city
attorney Tom Richards says Doyle became aware of Parma’s
interest in such projects when he attended a presentation by Parma
officials at a meeting of county officials from around the state.
This article appears in Jan 3-9, 2007.
