ITHACA, N.Y. — On Wednesday night, developers for Ithaca Properties LLC publicly laid out their plans for a massive undertaking that would reconstruct the Green Street Parking Garage with improved infrastructure and more spaces, make way for a conference center, have first floor retail, and provide a style of housing that will rival anything the city has ever seen.
While the details of the project are definitely still in the air, members of the Planning and Economic Development Committee are at the very least interested in seeing plans that would take the garage — which is nearing the end of its useful life — and seeing it repaired and maintained by a private entity, which would make money through on-site business but mostly residential rentals.
During the meeting, the committee made one thing clear: this project will not move forward without substantial affordable housing options.
“To me, that’s a crucial part of any project,” Fourth Ward Alderman Graham Kerslick said.
Committee Chairman Seph Murtagh, second ward, outright said the project won’t get approved without it.
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Over the course of the discussion, the conversation circled around the question, “What would be a substantial amount of affordable housing for a project like this?”
“What is substantial?” First Ward Alderwoman Cynthia Brock asked. “Is that 50 percent? Is that 75 percent? Is that 20 percent?”
She and others said that number needs to be decided early on while discussing any new development at the Green Street Parking Garage.
Brock also echoed public comments, asking why a request for proposals couldn’t be opened up so that local developers could take a stab at presenting designs for the area.
“It’s a very interesting design, but I believe that as a matter of process, we should open that opportunity up to other developers to see other ideas and get a value of the land itself, to make that process more transparent and equitable to other developers,” she said.
However, there’s a catch to opening the project up to other developers: Jeffrey Rimland owns the eastern third of the property that would be used for the proposed development, and he’s a managing partner with Ithaca Properties LLC.
He said after the meeting that he thinks that in combination with the current city-owned land, the developers will be able to fulfill all the city’s needs.
Otherwise, Rimland could refuse to sell his portion of the building to another developer, meaning someone else would have to come up with a more attractive plan with two-thirds of the space.
Mayor Svante Myrick said, “An RFP process makes sense, but also be up front about why this developer would have a leg up.”
Here are a few other new points brought up during the meeting:
- Local movie theater Cinemapolis will be permitted to stay in its current space and will be open throughout construction.
- While the new parking lot would have 525 public parking spaces, more than the current 415 public parking spaces, nobody seems to know if that will be enough to sustain the new residential project, public demand, guests from the new Marriott hotel and residents from the Harold’s Square residential development that is being built in the Commons.
- If and when the property is sold by the city, it will be taxable because it will become private property.
- While a recent study suggested that a conference center in Ithaca may not be feasible, developers said they would work with the city to make sure the project works as a whole.
- There probably will be a subsidy involved with this project, but that might depend on how much affordable housing the city demands from developers.
The committee voted to move a measure to Common Council next month, which would give officials the chance to vote on whether they’ll transfer the public land to the Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency, which could then decide whether any development would go forward and which developer would be used.