The town of Greece plans to buy 13 acres of the parking lot at the back of The Mall at Greece Ridge — then offer the property up for senior housing and other development.
That development is likely years away, officials said. Other development options include office and retail as well as community spaces.
New York state is providing a $5 million grant to cover the purchase price. The mall property is valued slightly higher, so town Supervisor Jeff McCann said mall owner Wilmorite Properties will receive credit for the difference, though it was not immediately clear how that would be applied.
"It is critically important that we do everything we can to help make the mall continue to be a viable place," McCann said, continuing: "There's some other very positive things that are happening at the mall in terms of developments that will be announced soon, but really, we have the opportunity with the project at the mall to really hit two of those issues, and that would be the viability of the mall and also with housing."
Housing developments have similarly sprung up at Marketview Mall in Henrietta and Skyview on the Ridge in Irondequoit. But while those towns took steps to encourage the development, neither involved the towns buying the land and orchestrating the projects.
"This isn't something that's going to get done next year," McCann said. "It's going to take time, but ... the town is going to have an asset that then we would have a lot more control over, you know, in terms of the scope of the project, in terms of the size of the project."
The property that Greece is buying is a back corner of the mall along Long Pond Road near the former Sears store. The area has been used most recently for a farmers market.
It was not immediately clear what other development is coming to the 1.63-million-square-foot mall.
This is Greece's first foray into Gov. Kathy Hochul's Pro-Housing Communities Program, aimed at incentivizing local development.
In announcing the state investment, Hochul specifically cited the 150-unit Marketplace Senior Apartments at the Wilmorite-owned Marketplace Mall.
McCann said Greece officials visited that site with developer Pathstone Development on Tuesday. The visit was not aligned with the announcement, but McCann noted the project had a four- or five-year waitlist for tenants — less than a third of the acreage Greece will acquire.
Senior housing is an often-cited need locally, as a lack of options leave seniors looking to downsize stuck in houses that could be starter or next-step homes for new homebuyers.
"That's really killing us, the lack of movement in the real estate market," McCann said. "So this will sort of help with that. Again, you know, not that we're going to fix it with one project. But, I mean, every little bit helps."
