ITHACA, N.Y. — A high-profile street corner in the center of Collegetown has new owners and a new development plan.
Local businessmen Charlie O’Connor and Nick Robertson have submitted plans to redevelop the cleared property at 325 College Ave., and are finalizing the purchase this week of the one-story building at 321 College Ave., which currently houses the Koko Korean & Asian Restaurant.
The property at 325 College Ave., the southeast corner of Collegetown’s core intersection, has some of the highest land values in Upstate New York — assessed at $16 million per acre. It was previously the site of a proposed 12-story commercial building by developers Phil Proujansky and John Novarr. The plan was part of a proposed multi-site “Collegetown Innovation District” that never came to full fruition, with only the Catherine Commons project portion completed.
The new building proposal from Robertson and O’Connor, filed with the city this month, calls for an 8-story, 37,551 square-foot building with ground-floor retail and residential and amenity spaces in the basement and on the upper floors.
Specifically, the building proposes 53 residential units with a unit mix ranging from studio to 4-bedroom apartments (98 bedrooms total), a 1,581 square-foot commercial space, lobby, fitness center, and a small roof deck. The project also includes sidewalk widening, landscaping, and a chamfered corner as mandated by the site’s zoning.
Prior to its demolition in the late 2010s, a one-story commercial building that housed a convenience store and a bank branch occupied the corner at 325 College Ave. That building, built in 1980, replaced a gas station that had opened in the 1950s.
Novarr and Proujansky purchased the 0.1-acre property for $1.65 million in 2011, and O’Connor and Robertson purchased the cleared corner property for $2.8 million in August. The purchase of Koko’s was an additional $1.3 million acquisition.
O’Connor and Robertson are both relatively low-profile in Ithaca’s real estate development scene. Robertson is the Chief Operations Officer for Integrated Operations, the firm that runs all of Novarr and Proujansky’s properties owned by Integrated Acquisition and Development (IAD). This project is his first major foray into being lead developer on his own projects, a personal endeavor separate from his work with IAD, he said.
Meanwhile, O’Connor, originally from the Albany area, runs Modern Living Rentals, whose typical approach to development involves a combination of modest infill and renovations of existing apartment houses. The two first met when Robertson was working a previous job at Welliver construction firm, and have collaborated on a few Ithaca-area projects.
“It’s a site that I’ve personally been drawn to for many years. When it became clear that the sellers were having some financial issues, I approached John [Novarr] and Phil [Proujansky] and suggested that I’d like to buy and develop it,” said Robertson.
Robertson said he approached O’Connor in hopes of partnering on the project, and O’Connor was receptive. Robertson said he appreciates O’Connor’s experience and has “a lot of respect” for O’Connor’s work.
“I’ve had my eye on this site forever,” O’Connor said. “This is such an underutilized piece of land, close to the gateway to Cornell, it could be some very nice, much-needed housing. I was excited when Nick came to me, and honored when he asked if I would be interested in partnering up with him to develop it. When it comes to building high-quality apartment buildings, he’s one of the best in this area.”
Robertson said they will likely be subsidizing the retail space rent to attract prospective business tenants.
“We don’t want this building to just check boxes, we want it to be an important piece of the community in Collegetown,” Robertson said, noting that density housing is important but has to be carefully located. “If you want to limit the sprawl and you want the student population to be concentrated in Collegetown, you want the density in the heart of Collegetown.”
O’Connor said they want a tenant at the prominent corner “that can thrive” and hopefully become a neighborhood staple that can attract other business to fill some of the other vacant commercial spaces in Collegetown. He said they are offering below-market rent to local business owners in negotiations over the space currently.
The proposed project would still need two zoning variances. While it complies with the 80-foot maximum height allowed on the properties, the zoning only allows six floors. This can disadvantage residential structures, as most residential floor plates are 9-10 feet tall, while commercial office or retail floor plates are 13-14 feet. The developers are seeking a variance to include two additional floors, creating an 8-story building totaling 79 feet and 8 inches in height.
Robertson said the specific zoning of the lot means they will need additional setbacks on the building, which will create more space for sidewalk expansion to “improve the pedestrian experience.”
“I went up and stood there, a week after we had closed, and tried to imagine this building being constructed,” O’Connor said. “With that corner of College [Avenue] and Dryden [Road] being so busy, I think it really enhances the pedestrian experience to step the first floor back and cantilever the building, to widen the sidewalks.”
The other variance relates to floor plate heights — upper floors are zoned to create a 10-foot minimum height, and the developers are proposing 9 feet, 8 inches for each of the upper floors. Robertson explained that 10 feet has been the standard for residential for years, but advancements in floor assembly engineering, the slab, decking and interstitial space between floors, have improved such that assemblies can be thinner without sacrificing soundproofing and vibration protection.
The zoning of the proposed project site is not required to have any parking spaces. MU-2 zoning is only found in inner Collegetown, and given that its residents are very likely to be students “commuting” to Cornell a block away, developers only need to submit a Transportation Demand Management Plan, to be reviewed and approved by planning staff.
That management plan typically involves a combination of bike racks, complimentary bus passes for residents, and directions to rent a space at the city’s Dryden Road parking garage at an additional cost should a car be necessary.
“You can look at Collegetown Terrace, which my team manages. We have 649 parking spots. We rarely rent more than 350. College students do not want vehicles,” said Robertson. “In this location, kids will be happy to walk, bike or use public transit.”
Robertson and O’Connor stated the project will not pursue any tax breaks — Collegetown properties are not eligible for the Community Investment Incentive Tax Abatement Program from the IDA. If approved, the project at 325 College Ave. would pay 100% of its taxable value from the day it opens.
Plans show a somewhat subtle modern building design by BKV Group, an architecture firm headquartered in Minneapolis (to note, the 325 College Ave. proposal is the work of the Washington D.C. satellite office). Local architect Craig Modisher of STREAM Collaborative will be shepherding the project through the review process before city boards.
BKV is new to the Ithaca market, and according to Robertson, their entry was a combination of word-of-mouth and good outreach.
“I had been looking at doing a really big project in Collegetown that didn’t pan out, and I had invited [BKV] to participate along with many of the giants in the design world,” Robertson said. “They all submitted something, but [BKV founder Jack] Boarman was the only one who showed up in Ithaca to have a chat. We had a sit-down for a couple of hours, and I was really impressed by him.”
A construction period was not identified in the filing, though the duration of construction is estimated at 14-16 months. Review of the project only consists of a presentation to the Planning Board this month, and the full breadth of Environmental Review, lot consolidation and zoning variance review would likely take several months.
While it’s Robertson’s first project, he suggested it won’t be his last.
“This is going to be the first of a handful, out-of-market and in-market, that will become public over the next couple of years,” Robertson said. “325 will not be the only project, it’s just the first that I’m focused on.”
The post Local developers aim to revitalize prominent Collegetown corner appeared first on The Ithaca Voice.