Dan Hurley,
president of Upper Mt. Hope Neighbors, sent a letter out to members of his
group shortly after the Corner Bakery Café in College Town closed in March. He was
peeved. After Saxbys Coffee in College Town closed
two months later, however, Hurley’s tone graduated to just short of livid over College
Town as a whole.
“I’m now seeing this as a project that needs
to be re-evaluated to see how the public, the neighborhood, and the students
who live close by benefit when their choices now become that much more limited
by a developer seemingly unwilling to check the pulse, letting this boat get
evermore closer to the falls,” Hurley wrote in the Saxbys
letter to his neighborhood group. “Based on recent circumstances, I’d be
shocked to find a tenant willing to sign a lease when they have so many other
choices in our area. How is it the developer can’t seem to grasp this?”
Hurley’s not alone in his concern. Three
College Town businesses have closed this year; Constantino’s
Market kicked off the unhappy trifecta when it shut down in February. The
natural question: is this project, which was propelled by promises of physical
and economic transformation and delivered with a significant infusion of public
money, in trouble?
No way, says the University of Rochester,
which owns the 14 acres that College Town is built on and rents a significant amount
of space in the development. Attrition is a natural part of all large
developments, says Colleen McCarthy, director of local government and community
relations for UR.
“College Town is successful and will continue
to be shaped by the addition of new tenants,” she says. “Current tenant
occupancy rate is 79 percent and new businesses and services are on the
horizon.”
Cass McCrory, director of marketing and events
for College Town, says that every new development has a learning curve and that
the developers are fine-turning the formula for College Town.
Rochester Running, Texas de Brazil steakhouse,
Bar 145, and a dry cleaning and laundry opened in College Town within the last
year, and a CVS is scheduled to open this fall, McCarthy says. A Barnes &
Noble Café is planned for the former Saxbys space
adjacent to the Barnes & Noble store, which serves as the UR’s campus
bookstore.
And the loft apartments in College Town have a
waiting list, McCarthy says.
College Town tenants that CITY spoke to say
that the media is focusing only on the negative and that risks attaching a
permanent stench to the overall development which can make failure a
self-fulfilling prophecy; the idea that “something terrible is happening over
there.”
Constantino’s may have been a misfire from the beginning. Hurley
and many others say that it was overpriced, especially for college students. The
store also lacked visibility.
“A store like that needs to be up front,”
Hurley says. “It needs to be right on Mount Hope Avenue.”
Hurley pins the closings of Saxbys and the Corner Bakery on behind-the-scenes drama.
Calls to the corporate headquarters of both stores were not returned.
Hurley has a number of issues with
Gilbane-Fairmount. The developer does not respond to issues at College Town
quickly enough, and communication with the Mt. Hope neighborhood is lacking, he
says. Hurley learned about the closings of Saxbys,
Corner Bakery Café, and Constantino’s from the media
— although the closings did seem to happen abruptly — despite regular meetings
with the developer, he says.
Marketing for the project hasn’t been
aggressive enough, although it has improved recently with things like movie
night on the roof, Hurley says.
Perhaps most importantly, the development plan
for College Town lacks cohesion, he says. A true “college town” would have clothing
stores, home furnishing stores, and an affordable grocer such as Aldi, for
example, he says.
“You need staple foods, so they don’t go out
to Henrietta,” Hurley says. “You do have a dry cleaner and running club. So
they’ve got a couple cool things. But they don’t have all the things that I
think would benefit a typical college town. Their business plan sucks; there’s
no other way of stating it.”
College Town’s McCrory says that Hurley’s
suggestion of possible tenants is important feedback and that the best way to
get more tenants into College Town is to patronize the tenants that are there
now.
And McCarthy says that college students
represent only a portion of College Town’s target consumer. College Town was
developed as a mixed-use center for Mt. Hope area residents, staff and visitors
to the University of Rochester Medical Center, UR faculty and staff, guests at
the Hilton Garden Inn on the College Town site, and consumers from the broader Rochester
area, she says.
So, with that in mind, the development team aims
for a varied mix of tenants, McCarthy says.
Another issue: the rent. Local media have
reported that some College Town tenants say that their rent is too high, and
the tenants that CITY interviewed seem to agree. One tenant says that although
business picked up significantly since she moved into College Town, it’s still
a struggle because the rent is so high.
Another says that he held off signing a lease
until he was able to negotiate a lower rate.
McCrory says that rents are negotiated at a
rate for tenants to be viable. The UR’s McCarthy says that the university has
no input into the rent structure.
The UR’s McCarthy says that College Town’s management team is responsive to tenants and engaged with the project. And
tenants that CITY spoke to say that the Gilbane-Fairmount team isn’t any better
or worse than other landlords they’ve had in terms of how quickly their
concerns are addressed. One tenant says that Gilbane-Fairmount printed and
distributed price sheets for him, which was a big help.
McCrory says that project representatives
regularly engage with the community and that they are always looking for
opportunities to support the Upper Mt. Hope group and the Rochester community.
“We’ve worked through issues collaboratively
and streamlined lines of communication over the last few months to ensure
prompt and swift attention,” she says.
The UR works with the development’s management
team to promote College Town’s tenants and events, McCarthy says. The UR takes
alumni and visitors to College Town during big occasions at the university,
such as commencement weekend and new student orientation, she says.
UR students, faculty, and staff also have
access to a free shuttle to College Town at specified times.
But Hurley says that College Town’s backers still
need to step up their game, especially given the amount of public money that
went into the project. College Town received a $20 million federal loan from
Housing and Urban Development, $4 million from the state economic development
council, $13.5 million in tax incentives through the county Industrial
Development Agency, and $17 million in public infrastructure improvements,
among other assistance.
“You’ve got to be aggressive with your
management and really keep a tight watch or else [tenants] are going to pass
you up,” he says. “They need to start really getting behind this. This whole
thing was proved on public dollars.”
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 2, 2016.
I think it’s disingenuous to cite the forthcoming CVS as a sign that all is well at Collegetown, since its opening will necessitate the closure of the existing CVS store at Mt. Hope and Elmwood. That seems more like a shell game than a sound development strategy.
I don’t know about Collegetown in Ithaca but the Dewitt Mall and the Ithaca Commons are interesting places with a large variety of shops and food venues to visit. They seem to have developed organically from older buildings over time and are inviting. There is also outside seating, art and greenery.
Rochester’s Collegetown seems to be the opposite. I wonder what the designers were told to develop and the constraints that were put on them. I’ve only visited twice but found it lifeless, uninviting and uninteresting. I recall the era of plop art and this seems to be plop construction with little character. For example a Dinosaur Bar-b-Que in this area just wouldn’t be the same.
There are other questionable projects coming along that will be seeking public funds. Local politicians don’t seem to be able to vote for the public interest so we need to find a way to regain control of our money.
Does anyone remember what used to be there just a few years back? An empty old building and a parking lot. This completely redid the street, even the other side, and made it look decent. Without it we would never have The Soup Spoon which I love.
I think the problem is more the people and less with management. People don’t seem to mind spending $10 at the yoga place for a smoothie.The college students are LAZY. They aren’t going to walk a half a mile, no matter the weather, to go to College Town when they never leave Rush Rhees to even take a shower.
I have no clue why The Corner Bakery closed, it seemed busy all the time for outrageously priced food. I doubt that had anything to do with the management of the building.
Look at the RIT space which the only thing left is the book store. It was nicely designed and still nothing there. But there are some issues with College Town that should have been addressed before construction. There isn’t a ton of green space. There is that tiny little amount and College Town tries to have movies and concerts there. There should have been more greenery, and a bigger park with benches and nice trees. Instead we get a CVS.
Once again, a victim of lack of planning in metro Rochester. Rather than 2 college towns, we should have 1. UR has already expander south of East River rd. They should continue that road to connect with RIT and at the inner section with Crittenden, have a combined collegetown including MCC. BTW, I also believe this would be the perfect spot to locate the first AIM photonics building with 3 colleges within shouting distance.
Rochester is very much a “glass half empty” kind of town as far as developments go. Practically every project is accompanied by choruses of doom. I should write a song called “Sitting in High Falls Waiting for the Fast Ferry Blues” and make a million dollars charging royalties at community meetings. Before CollegeTown that area was an old motel and the derelict parking lot from the former Wegmans. CollegeTown is not perfect (e.g., Constantino’s was a predictable misfire, Mt. Hope should be narrower, etc.), however, there are plenty of successful areas with far worse bones. It mostly takes people to make a successful place, and there ought to be enough people in that area for CollegeTown to work. The time to measure of success will come in three or four more years. Some projects are instant blockbusters, but that’s the exception, not the rule.
Sometimes I think Rochestarians actually want everything that happens in the city to fail. Stop being so negative. Businesses everywhere close all the time. Nobody panics when something closes at Eastiew Mall. And why is anyone surprised that rents are high in a brand new development near busy streets and our areas largest employer? If you need cheap rent, look at an older scruffier location. By the way, the city planners told the developer that the hidden setup for the grocery store was a bad idea, but the city has limited influence.
Why is it that Cam’s Pizza gets to visually pollute the Mt. Hope/Elmwood intersection with the huge head of a judge running for election? It’s ugly, obnoxious, and a clear flouting of campaign advertising regulations and city codes for advertising and billboards. It’s tacky. And he lost at least 2 votes (my husband and me.)
It’s better than what it was before, period. Come on people, have some vision and shut up about taxpayer money. This is the kind of stuff everyone should want around them and want their dollars going towards. Would I love to see a Trader Joes, a Gym, and maybe more retail, for sure, but who’s to say that won’t come. Some places failed because look around, every place is food practically. Could it really support 4 coffee places!!! Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Saxbys, Corner Bakery….Yes I hope the developer listens and attracts retailers that will round this development out. Could it take years for this to happen, maybe, but thats not so bad when you consider this place was build to be here for a century or more and compliment the current shining star that is UR/URMC.
“It’s better than what it was before, period.” Faint praise for a 100 million dollar project. ” Come on people, have some vision and shut up about taxpayer money.” We are only talking about the retail part of the project and it does appear there was a lack of vision on the part of those involved. The taxpayers kicked in about 30 million dollars. I suspect there were many smaller and less expensive projects that would have been a lot more benefit to the Rochester community. One wonders what agreements were made regarding the repayment of those funds.
Thank you for showing both sides of the College Town discussion. However, it was disappointing to see Dan Hurley get so much article time. He obviously has an agenda and his negative poisonous rhetoric just helps feed Rochester’s self-esteem problem.
Hurley gets the opening and the closing and takes many shots in between. It feels like the headline was re-written after the piece was filed to make it seem more balanced.
Guess what? Businesses fail. All the time. For at least one of the closed shops it seems like it was a case of “be better” and to blame it on College Town or the developers smacks of political maneuvering. I have no doubt College Town will find its way eventually and like many have pointed out, it’s an improvement from what was there. It might not be the thriving Metropolis that some people envisioned but I know it makes me smile every time I drive by or visit.
Too bad College Town wasn’t built on pontoons so we could put it up for sale and just float it away. Just kidding.
Seriously though, It sounds like College Town does well when parents and alumni visit, but that’s about it.
College Town seems too expensive to attract the kind of diverse crowds that would really get things humming. Wouldn’t a real corner store with cold beer, hot buffet food, fanatical customer service, and LOW PRICES do really well there?
It’s unfortunate that high rents are preventing College Town from becoming great.
The only Corner Bakery in Buffalo just closed. Maybe the owner has problems unrelated to Collegetown.
http://www.buffalonews.com/gusto/restauran…
This illustrates why entities such as COMIDA should be eliminated. All told, including State and Federal versions of OUR money, $44.5 million is “invested” by politicians and if it goes south, life goes on and they move on to the next project they can skim money off of. However if a business invests their own money and actually make a go of it, they are attacked as profiteers. When will people wake up and start to figure out why our taxes are so high? WE pay for politicians’ folly. Instead of them trying to coax politically correct businesses along, lower the threshold of taxes so that more businesses A) will risk their own money and B) make it possible to take that leap.