Mayor Warren announces Golisano Entertainment Complex

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Mayor Lovely Warren has announced a new project, the Golisano Entertainment Complex at Riverside Place, to be built at the site of the Riverside Hotel.

Part of ROC the Riverway, the project is a replacement for the former proposal of the Golisano Performing Arts Center at Parcel 5. The project team is set to consist of Christa Development and the Rochester Broadway Theatre League, with a partnership with the Joseph A. Floreano Riverside Convention Center, and, by sheer scope, potentially change the face of downtown Rochester. The proposal as it stands includes a 3,000 seat performing arts center, a 500 seat theater, a 250 room hotel, 200 units of housing, including some reserved for affordable housing and 50-60,000 square feet of retail, spa, fitness, lobby and grand foyer space.

The project is currently ball-parked at over $200 million, Warren said.

“We had to come together, not just because of the resources we’d need for this significant project, but because it would be a game-changer for down,” Warren said. “I agreed that this was once in a lifetime opportunity for our city, an opportunity to begin a new visionary and job creating project as part of the ROC the Riverway Project, which would include the performing arts center as part as well as a hotel and entertainment center.”

Dubbed a true public-private partnership by Dave Christa, the project’s financing at this point is not set in stone, at least partly due to the shift in size of the project from the former Parcel 5 proposal, with the Riverside Hotel space being approximately two and half times the size of Parcel 5. The City had previously requested $20 million from the state for the Parcel 5 project. Warren said additional state funds may be requested in time to fill gaps in the project, which will be built at a “slow and steady” pace.”

Christa completed the purchase of the Riverside Hotel alongside Morgan Management LLC last year with initial plans to renovate. Christa opted to raze the hotel, calling the building “functionally obsolete.” Both Christa and Warren called the site “the best location in Rochester.”

“The synergies between the convention center, the theater, the hotel, the apartments, will really push this to, hopefully, be the most spectacular place in upstate,” Christa said.

Like many of Warren’s development initiatives, job creation is at the forefront. A rough estimate has the number of full-time construction jobs at 810, and the completed site to host 238 new full-time jobs and 271 new part-time jobs. The project is estimated to attract 360,000 people downtown annually, sell $18.5 million in tickets and provide a total annual economic impact of $55.5 million.

“With the announcement of Hamilton, RBTL now has over 13,300 season subscribers,” said RBTL’s Arnie Rothschild. “That’s up from only 7,000. That means this market is a really strong market for entertainment, in fact, I call Rochester the most entertaining city in the northeast.”

The project, however, likely won’t launch for some time. If all goes according to plan, Christa expects an initiation date in Jan. 2020, with a two year build-out time.

Though the project dwarfs virtually every single economic development project in the city and the exact channels of funding haven’t quite been established, Warren has faith.

“We have to do something differently, we choose to do things differently, and we have a partner in the governor who has stepped up to the plate and given millions of dollars to get things done here in Rochester,” Warren said. “Go over to the airport and take a look, and tell me it’s not being done. Go look at the promenade behind the Dinosaur and tell me it’s not being done. Look at all of the housing developments we’ve had, Charlotte Street, the innerloop, all of that, tell me it’s not be done. Go into the Sibley Building 10 years ago and today and tell me it’s not being done. So is it going forward? Absolutely, but at a steady pace.”