[ UPDATED ] The Rochester Broadway Theatre League will get its new theater, if its fundraising is successful, but it won’t be on Parcel 5. Instead, it’ll be by the river, part of a large, $250 million multi-use complex on the site of the former Radisson Riverside Hotel on East Main Street, across the street from the Riverside Convention Center.
Mayor Lovely Warren presented the plan at a press conference Tuesday morning.
In addition to a 3,000-seat theater used principally by RBTL, the complex will include a smaller theater with about 500 to 800 seats, available for use by other organizations. There will also be a new hotel with about 250 rooms, which will replace the current hotel; about 200 residential units; restaurant and retail space; and a garage serving all of the uses.
The complex will be adjacent to public park space along the river north of Main Street, which is scheduled for improvements as part of the city’s ROC the Riverway project.
Partners in the project will include Christa Development, RBTL, and the Riverside Convention Center.
A number of key details still have to be worked out, though. RBTL will be responsible for raising the money for the large theater, and Christa will be responsible for funding the hotel, residential units, and garage. City chief of staff Alex Yudelson said this morning that the partners are still discussing who will fund and operate the smaller theater.
Philanthropist Tom Golisano has committed $25 million to the large theater, but RBTL has not yet announced additional funding. City officials have been in discussion with state officials about funding, and while Yudelson says those discussions have been positive, there’s been no commitment.
Warren had initially recommended the RBTL theater for Parcel 5, along with an apartment building developed by Morgan Communities. But the entire project seemed to be in doubt after news broke earlier this year that the FBI was investigating one of the Morgan companies.
City officials say the new development, at the new site, will meet needs that the Parcel 5 development didn’t. Convention and tourism officials have said for years that they needed a theater near the Riverside Convention Center. And the East Main Street hotel needs major improvements.
Assuming that funding is secured for all of the components, construction will likely take at least 2 1/2 years, Yudelson said, although work could move more quickly. One thing that could speed the process: since the land is owned by Christa, City Council won’t be involved in approving the sale of the site, as it would have been on Parcel 5.
The new plan leaves Parcel 5 with no development proposal. Warren spokesperson James Smith said that city officials will reconsider the use of the site, with community involvement in discussions.
Related
People for Parcel 5, which opposed an RBTL theater at the site, sent out the following statement Tuesday morning:
People for Parcel 5 congratulates the City for selecting the Radisson as the site for the new RBTL theater. Our goal has and will continue to be to determine the best use of Parcel 5 for the people of Rochester through an open and engaged process. We look forward to working with the City to help facilitate community involvement and discussion.
Late last week, city officials released a report by the AMS consulting firm, indicating that a new RBTL theater would help, not hurt, other local arts organizations. The city commissioned that report after arts groups said they feared that a large new theater for Broadway shows would detract from their own audiences and from their donor support. AMS disagreed, citing the experience of several other cities where new performance theaters have been built.
This article appears in Oct 17-23, 2018.
Once again, where will the money come from to support a new theater and the Auditorium? Will a new theater cannibalize audiences from existing arts groups? Answers, please, before decisions are made. And REAL answers, not happy answers from a poll designed to favor a theater.
There will be a functioning theater and hotel along the river years before Parcel 5 is anything but an empty desolate space. This was a brilliant pivot to forsake a location of no special merit that had become a cause celebre. Look at 5 and ask yourself what sort of “park” do you imagine belongs there or what sort of multi-use property the city now lacks. We guess it may end up condos or like much of the city sit empty and uninteresting now that the one investor has stepped away. To save face perhaps something public goes there but unlikely the major investment long discussed. Perhaps sort of sad but if all the commotion both erases a blighted hotel and puts life on the river front it is a double win….for all of us.
Greenraven, only a win if the City isn’t left with the debt when it fails. As they have been with so many projects that rely on pie-in-the-sky attendance figures.
THIS is ….A BRILLIANT PLAN…..
1)IT GREATLY EXPANDS USEABLE, ACCESSIBLE, AVAILABLE 21ST CENTURY HIGH END STATE-OF-THE-ART FACILITIES,
DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO The Riverside Convention Center, Thus attracting BIGGER CONVENTION BUSINESS Looking For Bigger Facility Capabilities. This will make Rochester Far More Competitive For More Lucrative Convention Business Generating greater PROFIT$$$.
2)Rochester Already Has Been Losing Out Not Only On Bigger,More Profitable Convention Business, Its Lost Out On MANY HIGH DRAW NATIONAL SHOWS Whose Contracts DEMAND A High Tech,High Ceiling VENUE WITH a MINIMUM Audience Seating Of 3,000 per performance. They require THIS Because Yhey KNOW Their Requirements For That SheerSize Of Their Stage Sets, Overhead, and Budgets,They Need These Minimum Requiremnts Met To Make a Rochester,NY Appearance At All Feasible !
3)A Smaller, More Intimate Theatre Is PERFECT For Visiting Cabaret, Visiting Plays, Art Film, Experimental Theatre, Art Performance, A Possible Resident Acting and/or Dance School That Complements The Eastman School Of Music.
4)Synergy Creates A Nexus Of Activities Happening In Close Proximity.
5)New, Enthusiastic City-Center Condo, Apartment, and Townhouse Dwellers Are Filling Needed City Tax Coffers. So Are The Many High Tech Businesses. The City has First And Foremost NEEDS To Continue To Attract The Highly Educated, Professionally Employed, High Calibre People Whose Lifestyle Expenditures Can Lift The Citys Economic Health!M!
With The Convention Center Directly Across The Street Connected To The New Performing Arts Center, Connected ToThe New High Rise Hotel and Condo onion Tower, Connected To New Restaurants, Shops Along The River Promenade Will Dramatically Enliven A Center City Greater Metropolitan Rochester, NY Has Longed For, For A Very, Very, Long Time.
Lets MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!