Story by Kelsey O’Connor and Brian Crandall
ITHACA, N.Y. — The team behind City Harbor provided an update on the project this week, including a look at a new Greenstar Co-Op building planned.
The City Harbor project as currently planned will redevelop the former Johnson Boatyard site at 101 Pier Road into a “waterfront neighborhood.” The plans include upscale apartments, a move for Greenstar into a new, bigger home, potential restaurant space and a medical office building for Guthrie Clinic. It will maintain marina operations during construction and plans to broaden marina services when complete.
Early site plan renders suggest three waterfront residential structures with a total of 80 units. There would be parking on the ground level and four floors of apartments or condominiums above. A building facing the confluence of the Inlet and Cascadilla Creek called “The Point” would potentially have hospitality and residential uses in a five-story building, with a one-story wing that would house a waterfront restaurant.
The developers presenting to the Planning and Development Board on Tuesday said they are drawing inspiration for “The Point” from Ocean House in Rhode Island, a New England-style oceanside resort.
Away from the shoreline, Guthrie would be housed in a three-story, 60,000 square-foot building for medical office space with 240 parking spaces. Parking for the housing works out to slightly over one space per unit, and there would be at least 134 parking spaces along the streets and in other, smaller parking lots around the site. A marina would host public docking facilities served by a waterfront public walkway, while a boating center and accessory facilities for the Newman Municipal Golf Course are also included in the plan.
One challenge for the location is how cut off it is from the city. It is effectively an island, meaning it will be a vehicle-dependent site. Still, there will be plenty of walkways open to the public.
Meanwhile, at the Cascadilla Street property, a former Cornell University warehouse at 770 Cascadilla Street would be renovated to make way for a much larger Greenstar, previously reported last month. The adjacent Cornell Printing Press building at 750 Cascadilla Street would be demolished to make way for more parking (164 spaces) to serve the larger Greenstar. Guthrie purchased these buildings last June.
Perhaps a key point here is that this is a proposal with a lot of moving parts; Greenstar, Guthrie and the City Harbor developers are all working together on various components of a multi-pronged waterfront development plan.
“It’s a tough site but we’re working hard on it,” developer Nick Lambrou said at the meeting. “The reward is great for the community.”
The development team includes Lambrou Real Estate, Edger Enterprises and Morse Project Management. Local firms STREAM Collaborative and T. G. Miller P.C. are part of the design team, along with architecture firm QPK Design of Syracuse.