CSD Housing christens Center City Courtyard in downtown Rochester

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A few years back, when CSD Housing partner Mike Dehmler was taking part in negotiations to buy two vastly underutilized parking lots on downtown’s west side, he had a vision for what could be.

Instead of an entire city block of gravel emptiness pierced by a few hearty weeds, he saw change. He saw purpose. He saw a rebirth.

Today, that vision rises five stories above West Main Street. CSD Housing and nonprofit development partner Help Development Corp. on Wednesday afternoon christened Center City Courtyard.

A 164-unit affordable housing community, Center City Courtyard provides modern apartment living in the heart of downtown. The $72 million project also serves a critical need; 95 units are reserved for households experiencing at-risk homelessness, including veterans and individuals reentering the community following incarceration along with individuals experiencing substance use or mental health challenges.

The organizations providing those support services — Helio Health, Eagle Star Housing and the Urban League of Rochester — will have on-site offices on the first floor. It’s the state’s largest supportive housing project outside of New York City, according to the Office of Temporary & Disability Assistance.

The New York State Office of Mental Health is providing $2.3 million in annual operating funding for those services.

The C-shaped building borders West Main to the north, Plymouth Avenue to the east, West Broad Street to the south and South Washington Street to the west.

On the Broad Street side is a large courtyard that will feature umbrella tables, Adirondack chairs and plenty of room for a band or event tent. CSD officials envision the courtyard as a gathering spot not just for residents but the neighborhood.

“We hope this space is filled with people,” said Whitney McClary, development director for Pittsford-based CSD Housing. “We want the greater community integrated within this space.”

Passero Associates, the project architect, incorporated design elements that link the present to the past. Broad Street was once home to the Erie Canal system, so the multicolored façade of the building’s south side is meant to evoke a canal-city feel, whether it’s 19^th century Rochester or 21^st century Amsterdam.

“The colors, the fabric and the scale of the buildings pay homage to that,” Steve Trobe, senior project architect at Passero, said at the groundbreaking in May of 2024.

Passero’s team didn’t intend to create boring; they wanted unique, they wanted memorable, Dehmler said.

The all-electric building features a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, the majority of which are reserved for those earning up to 60 percent of the Area Median Income. A fitness center and community room are located on the first floor and there’s an outdoor patio on the fifth floor.

The city’s offerings also are nearby. Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial is two blocks to the east. Innovative Field is a half mile walk to the north. The Hochstein School is a block to the north. Parcel 5, with its various programmed community events is barely a half mile east.

“When we found this site, we were excited to create a community that provides access to the great things the city has to offer and why a lot of us choose to live downtown,” said McClary, a Corn Hill resident.

On the outside of the building is programmable lighting that will be synchronized to the calendar, so you’ll see green on St. Patrick’s Day and Orange on Halloween, plus a variety of other colors to align city happenings.

CSD has worked with a variety of nonprofits to create needed housing across the state. This was just the second project in which they have an ownership stake; the other was 270 on East, a five-story, 112-unit apartment community on East Avenue at Union Street.

Contractor Christa Construction completed the project on time and on budget, CSD Housing partner Keri Curtis said.

Funding came from a variety of sources, including New York State Homes and Community Renewal state and federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit programs, which generated over $30 million in equity and $28 million in subsidy. The state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance provided $8 million through the Homeless Housing and Assistance Program while the city of Rochester issued a $1 million HOME grant and PILOT agreement.

CSD Housing is serving as consultants on several projects that are in the works, including Los Flamboyanes, a Landsman Development Corp. community along Upper Falls Boulevard, and The Fine Arts Building Lofts, an endeavor to restore the old downtown Cadillac Hotel by Cain Properties LLC.

And across Plymouth Avenue from Center City Courtyard is the second vacant parking lot that CSD purchased from Spoleta Construction & Development in 2021.

The parcel was once home to the Hotel Rochester and a theater. CSD intends to create another five-story housing community with around 120 units as well as a Trillium Health pharmacy and clinic. Planning is underway and a funding application has been submitted, Dehmler said.

For the moment, though, they’re going to savor completion of Center City Courtyard.

“It exceeded my expectations,” McClary said. “The size of it, the scale I couldn’t quite imagine. But I couldn’t be more proud. We really created beautiful spaces or our residents and an aesthetically pleasing building for our city to enjoy.”

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