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Archive (1999-) Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Home News City's newest address opens proud and tall Local News Project adds a new spark to Ithaca's engine Archives

Local Sports By ANNE JU Lifestyle Journal Staff Nation/World Obituaries Celebrations Opinion ITHACA — The grand opening of Seneca Place on The Technology Commons today marks a new Weather page in downtown Ithaca's Entertainment history, turned over after five- Communities plus years of anticipation and planning. Classifieds Shopping “It represents a major Staff Homes commitment to downtown by Cars the university, which is very Jobs important,” said Thys Van Cort, the City of Ithaca's Customer Service planning and development

director, referring to Cornell University. “It's a major shot in the arm for downtown, and for the city in general.”

Buffalo-based Ciminelli Staff Development Co. brought the building to Ithaca, with a total project budget that ended up close to $30 million, according to Ciminelli Vice President David Chiazza.

The company, city officials and other guests will celebrate today's opening with a private ribbon cutting and reception at the new building, on the corner of Seneca and Tioga streets. Office workers started moving in this week, while the hotel will open officially on Aug. 1.

From top down, the 185,000 square-foot structure at 130 E.

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Seneca St. comprises a 104- room Hilton Garden Inn, along with four lower floors of office space — about 93,000 square feet.

Cornell's commitment

The city's anticipation for Seneca Place's opening is tied to the influx of 300 Cornell employees, along with employees from Smith Barney and other yet-undetermined tenants, flooding Ithaca as a result.

Cornell, the project's anchor tenant, is sending employees from its alumni affairs office, as Photos MATTHEW HINTON, SIMON WHEELER / Journal Sta well as its Johnson School of Management, to work in the At top left, a standard guestroom on the 9th floor of the Hilton Garden Inn at Seneca Place on The new office building. Commons with views up to East Hill. At upper left, the window of the exercise area looks out over the That agreement, according to pool and whirlpool of the Hilton Garden Inn. At center Cornell Real Estate Director left, is the hotel lounge, lower left shows a suite's John Majeroni, was a siting room. The Hilton Garden Inn with its 104- purposeful move designed to rooms opens August 1. At lower left, Seneca Place on the Commons opens today. It includes office make Cornell a component to space for 300 Cornell University employees along downtown economic success. with other business offices.

“It's very important that Ithaca stays a good place to live,” Majeroni said. “Cornell could not remain a world-class university without Ithaca being a world-class place to live.”

Business owners in the DeWitt Mall, Seneca Place's westward neighbor, are looking forward to more workers, shoppers and diners concentrated downtown.

“We're hoping it'll show an increase in business,” said David Hirsch, co-owner of Staff Moosewood Restaurant. “We welcome it.”

Kyllikki Inman, manager of the antique shop Pastimes, smiled at the idea of more foot traffic, especially since her business and others suffered after the Tompkins County Public Library moved to the old Woolworth's building on Green Staff Street in 2000.

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“All the librarians used to come and eat lunch, or people would stop on the way to the library,” she said. “Our customer base went down. It'll be nice to replace that with hopefully, an even bigger replacement.”

Cafe DeWitt owner Eve Lindys isn't

thrilled about the size of the building — “It's not to scale with the rest of the city,” she said. But she's happy that Seneca Street is now open after months of construction roadblocks, and her restaurant can now reap the benefits.

“We love it when we're busy, and we're looking forward to new customers and new challenges,” Lindys said.

Parking deal

As part of the package of coming downtown, Cornell brokered a deal for up to 250 parking permits at the city's three parking garages: Cayuga, Green and Seneca, with the majority of employees encouraged to park at the new Cayuga garage, according to Chiazza.

Part of the reasoning for that deal was to encourage employees to walk through The Commons, Chiazza explained.

In addition, Ciminelli gets 104 spaces in the Seneca garage for the hotel's use, starting on the lowest levels of the parking ramp just after the handicap-reserved spots, Chiazza said.

“Our usage of those spaces varies from day to day,” he said. He and the city are figuring out the best way to reserve a certain number of spaces for the hotel on a daily basis, depending on occupancy.

Density vision

Ciminelli's Seneca Place didn't sprout out of nowhere, but rather, is part of a larger vision for giving downtown Ithaca a denser, more vibrant core. A broader goal is “saving” downtown from suburban sprawl, a concept being embraced by other cities across America.

“We have very small parcels which can be good if treated properly,” said Gary Ferguson, executive director of the Ithaca Downtown Partnership. “It requires us to do dense development.”

Ferguson called Seneca Place a “huge boon” to the city's density vision. It is the largest private-sector project completed in a generation, both physically and in terms of cost. Its mixed-use character — putting a hotel on top of an office building — is a creative use of real estate, he said. Perhaps most significantly, Ferguson said, adding workers and hotel patrons to downtown is a major traffic generator.

“Its desired goal was not only to move people downtown, but also to be a catalyst,” Ferguson said. “It helped get the ball rolling.”

Getting the ball rolling took more than just the project itself, but a generous allotment of tax breaks that developers say were essential to making the project happen.

In 2003, the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency approved a tax abatement plan that phases in property taxes owed over 20 years, until the building is taxed at full value. The abatements are worth about $3.9 million.

The project was one of the first granted abatement under the IDA density policy, which http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050726/NEWS01/507260325/1002 (3 of 4)7/26/2005 10:15:07 AM Local News - The Ithaca Journal - www.theithacajournal.com

promotes development by offering tax incentives based on the heights of buildings being constructed.

Contact: [email protected]

Originally published July 26, 2005

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