Ithaca Builds

Mapping, photos and information for Ithaca construction and development projects

Project Updates

Tompkins County Biggs Property Will be Sold to NRP Group

October 1, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

The resolutions regarding the sale of the Tompkins County Biggs Property to NRP Properties, LLC have passed, so the project will go before Town of Ithaca Planning Board meetings next. The final resolution to approve the sale passed 11-4.

The project’s working titles are “Cayuga Ridge Village” and “Cayuga Village Townhomes”.

There would be a Homeowner’s Association managed by Better Housing for Tompkins County.

The units would have an option to purchase after a 15-year period due to the requirements of the tax credits that would be sold to investors in order to finance the project.

60-Unit Townhomes, one to four bedrooms; from the renderings and floor plans, they look as if they would be modular.

Total development cost: $13,500,000 +/- ($225k build-out cost per unit)

Developer: the NRP group LLC, Cleveland, Ohio

Architects: RDL Architects – Shaker Heights (Cleveland), Ohio

A gentleman from the NRP group gave a short presentation and answered questions from the legislators, as well as Ed Marx, the planning commissioner. Ed summarized the history of the project, and the results of the meetings with residents on West Hill.

The legislators spent a lot of time going over the structuring of the tax credits (the fact that the units can’t be sold until 15 years in), and how the project is ultimately financed, as well as some site plan questioning. There’s a lot that has yet to be determined at this point, and there was a considerable amount of dialogue on the future property taxes, the current assessment, the affordability criteria, and the ultimate sale pricing.

The main discussion just before the resolution passed went over the opposition points: the site placement relative to the City, traffic congestion and pursuant costs, violence since the beginning of housing expansion on West Hill, and the inequity of City taxpayers subsidizing the housing and transit implications of the Town’s development decisions.

There’s a petition from Ithaca West and a large number of individuals that have opposed the sale for the use of this project. The pages with the objection letters and a letter of support are particularly good.

Here’s the Community That Works site, setup to communicate about the project. Much of the project’s impetus comes from a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant for Climate Showcase Communities, and the program is modelled on EcoVillage-style development.

 

Here’s the Project Description:

 

 

Here’s a memorandum on affordable housing from Ed Marx, the Commissioner of Planning:

 

Press Bay Alley Demolition Prep for Steel

October 1, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

Press Bay Alley’s old garage doors have been completely removed in preparation for Accufab‘s steel work on each of these bays for micro-retail spaces. Accufab’s work will be going on this week, and then Overhead Door will be installing new roll-up doors. The owner John Guttridge said that the integration of the steel garage door roll-up headers on the top of each bay will match the steel work all the way down, so the retail facade will essentially look like one integrated steel face. See the project page for previous renders.

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Tompkins County Selling Biggs Property to Ohio Development Group

September 26, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

The NRP Group LLC of Cleveland, Ohio partnered-up with Better Housing for Tompkins County to respond the the County’s July 2012 Request for Proposal (RFP) for acquisition and development of the former Biggs property, a 25.52-acre wooded site right across from Cayuga Medical Center, at the end of Harris B Dates Drive on the left (see tax map and google map below). The site is assessed at $340,000 and the purchase offer is set at $500,000 with proposed contingencies that the County will provide funds for off-site pedestrian and transit improvements.
The NRP group mainly focuses on multi-family development, senior housing, and LIHTC (low-income housing tax credit) projects, and Better Housing for Tompkins County is a local not-for-profit that promotes and incentivizes affordable housing in rural areas by offering purchase assistance, rental housing, and various home repair programs. Since this project will be next door to Cayuga Medical Center, I imagine that the target housing demographic is low-income seniors. Post-publish, there was an Ithaca Times article introducing the project as a 30-90% median income clustered townhouse project with 60 units of one to four bedrooms. The rents translate from $300 to $1300, some units single story and others two story.
If I had a bone to pick with this proposal, it’s this: I think incentivizing low-income housing and senior housing is appropriate, but this sort of development is exactly the kind of thing that gets municipalities into fiscal and transportation trouble. Single-use facilities beyond urban fringes without realistic walkable neighborhoods and amenities aren’t as desirable or fiscally-sustainable as urban mixed-use developments with walkability. Ithaca is a tough development scenario because there’s a shortage of flat, developable land in the urban core, but I think if land held by the public is being transferred to private hands for a specific project, there should be a public disclosure of the lifecycle public costs, as well as a fully-fleshed-out plan for development. (The Town of Ithaca Planning Board will be reviewing this Fall)
Given the new information in the article, I think mixed-income is a good move, and it will be interesting to see the actual proposal in Town Planning, and whether or not there is housing demand information from Cayuga Medical Center staff. The article references plans for walking paths and a neighborhood-style layout, but we’re still looking at a single-use facility 3 miles up West Hill from downtown.

Assessment report and Tompkins County Legislature minutes embedded below.

 

 

 

Seneca Way Eastern & Southern Facade Progress

September 26, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

EIFS base coat and finish coat texture applications are following-up right on the heels of the insulation material installation on the southern side of the Seneca Way facade. Southern side looks about half-way through, and the eastern side is nearly complete.

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Argos Inn Open: Interior Photos on the Web

September 26, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

Right next door to the Seneca Way Project, the Argos Inn (the former McCormick Cowdry House built in 1831) has opened-up for business (bar coming soon), and they’ve posted some interior shots on their Facebook Page: Opening Week Photos

I haven’t had a chance to peek inside yet, but the exterior is absolutely great- I particularly like the application of floor to header glass along the column-lined porches on both floors. Looks like a great repurpose and restoration project for a historic building.

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Planned Parenthood Steel Structure Assembly

September 25, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

The Planned Parenthood site is showing great progress: the concrete forms have been removed on both the stair and elevator towers, and we’ve got two stories of structural steel beam assemblies, anchored on the concrete foundation sections and footer blocks. As you can see from the rendered plans below, the stair tower will be going up another story for roof access, and the steel beam section with the angled tops will be supporting the hipped-roof western portion of the building. The structure will be extending further north from what we see now to fill-out the rest of the hipped roof section and flat roof section, which will be developed just past the stair tower.

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Collegetown Terrace Building 5 Progress & Building 6 Structure Underway

September 24, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

Well, well, I must’ve missed this one for at least a few weeks: Building 6 (see sitemap here for reference) has clearly been underway for a little while now, as the structure is up to two stories now, along with the full four stories of the block stair tower, and the retaining wall on the northern side has been wrapped. The third story floor deck is still being assembled at the far end, probably in prep for a final pour of the floor deck, but it looks as if most of the structural elements of two stories are all there, with the exception of the western end of the building, which may be framed in a different way. Building 5 shows some further progress since last week. The fourth-story framing is continuing to fill-in and the second story floor deck in the middle section (between the sheathed portions) has been poured.

The scale of this project is becoming more apparent as Building 5 has made its way around in front of the massive facade of Building 3.4. The views from the top floor of 3.4 must be quite good.

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The Scenes Down on the Commons

September 23, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

Here are some shots of the Commons taken today and last week. The new piping for the main water line has been one of the major focuses this past week as the lateral connections off the water main are connected to the portions of the new water main, more telecommunication work continues to free those sections up, and the contractors will begin with final flushing and pressure testing this week.
All the work being done until winter is concerned with the center section of the Commons, so once all the utility work is completed, all the pavers and center section amenities will go in. Come Spring 2014, the sidewalks adjacent to private properties will be opened-up and worked on.

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Collegetown Terrace Building 5 Framing & Scaffolding Updated Photos

September 21, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

An extra level of exterior sheathing is up on the fourth level of this section of Building 5 as framing the third level walls and fourth level deck has progressed. There’s also some more new heavy steel beam framing along the southern end of the eastern section where scaffolding has been assembled and the northern framing-out has been completed for quite a while. The insulation and waterproofing layers look just about complete on the huge northern concrete retaining wall, so it will probably be backfilled soon.

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Klarman Hall Site Prep-Work Updated Photos

September 19, 2013 // by Jason Henderson

The future Klarman Hall’s eastern side along East Ave. has some preliminary excavation work with a small excavator and a dump truck. We’ll probably see a relatively level surface work its way down as the excavator chips away at this steep grade so that it can stay stable. Lots of soil to move though- all the more reason a concrete retaining wall will be going in this February.

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