CityGate plaza’s new owners are looking to restart the long-stalled development that is home to Costco on Rochester’s south side.
But they have a different vision for finishing out the 44-acre site.
The initial concept for CityGate was for a walkable “village,” with hundreds of apartments, plus townhouses and singe-family homes spread around restaurants, offices, shops and a hotel. What it became is a half-finished shopping center with a fair amount of vacancy and acres yet to be developed.
The property is expansive, extending along Westfall and East Henrietta roads and reaching into Brighton.
Costco and Five Star Bank own their portions of the plaza. Streamline Real Estate Partners out of Fairport bought the rest of the property last fall and now is looking to complete the project — but without the housing.
Conceptual plans still show a hotel (five stories, upward of 185 rooms), but the housing is replaced with drive-through restaurants and office or mixed-use commercial buildings. Officials said there is more commercial, not residential, development on the Brighton side as well, though no formal proposal has been submitted.
“We're excited at what they've got planned,” said Erik Frisch, the city’s deputy commissioner for neighborhood and business development. “And although it's a change from the previous vision, it is no less exciting to see CityGate finally come together.”
Construction on CityGate started in 2014, but came to a standstill a few years later after the death of lead developer Anthony Costello. The city at one point sought to foreclose on the property.
As the latest conceptual plans have spread across social media in recent days, critics have called the new direction a missed opportunity – particularly given the shortage of housing locally and statewide.
In a letter to the city’s Planning Commission, Streamline’s attorney Betsy Brugg wrote that, “market conditions have changed over the past 10 years, with the development of significant amounts of market rate and affordable housing in the City of Rochester and surrounding area.”
CityGate has become a regional shopping and service destination, she continued. And while noting that the original plans also included a parking garage and bus station, which are no longer shown, she described the proposed changes as “minor in nature.”
When asked about the criticisms, Frisch pointed to what is already in the pipeline.
“We've got thousands, I don't have a number in front of me but thousands of units of housing in various stages of proposal and design and construction,” he said. “Considerable units are planned nearby as well to this in other developments.
“So, while, I agree, we need as much housing as we can get ... It’s a new developer (on the project). They’re a commercial developer. And they’re proposing a commercial development.”
Streamline’s portfolio is mainly standalone coffee shops, fast-food and sit-down restaurants, and strip malls. The Cannery in Fairport is one of their projects. Their client list includes Chipotle, Starbucks, Burger King, Jersey Mike’s Subs, Verizon and WellNow Urgent Care along with the two medical centers.
Developers are asking the city to adjust zoning to fit their new vision. That should take a couple of months. In the meantime, they plan to focus on filling the vacant, existing storefronts.
