John Majaroni, left, the director of Cornell
Real Estate; Alan Cohen, mayor of Ithaca; Doug McDonald, the
director of economic development for the City of Ithaca, back;
and Carolyn Peterson, the mayor-elect of the City of Ithaca,
adjust their hard hats as they and Gary Ferguson, executive
director of the Ithaca Downtown Partnership, right, and others
prepare for the ceremonial ground breaking for the Cayuga
Green project Monday afternoon in the parking lot south of the
Tompkins County Public Library.
A site plan of the Cayuga Green project
provided by the National Development Council.
ITHACA -- Wielding gold-painted shovels, officials broke ground
Monday for the first phase of the city's Cayuga Green downtown
development.
But the dirt will really start flying Jan. 5, when actual
construction gets under way on the parking garage.
The facility -- part of a three-phase parking, retail and
residential development in the area of Green and Cayuga streets --
should be ready for operation by mid-2005, said Kevin McLaughlin,
director of The National Development Council, the city's economic
development consultants. It is to be built on land along Cayuga
Street south of the Tompkins County Library.
Monday's ceremony also highlighted the possible future role of a
promenade to be built along Six Mile Creek in conjunction with the
plan. While phase one development limits the creekwalk to the area
around the new garage, Mayor Alan Cohen said that the walkway could
ultimately be extended along the entire creek from Cayuga Lake to
the lower reservoir.
Financing for the garage came about through a complex series of
financial and legal negotiations that, some speakers noted, finally
came together in a flurry of activity in recent weeks. Organizers
had to review thousands of pages of documents in recent weeks,
McLaughlin said.
Cohen had high praise for many of the partners who worked on the
project, including Common Council and numerous members of city staff
for their work on the project, singling out Alderman Dan Cogan,
D-5th Ward.
"Words alone can not express how much time and energy, and detail
Dan looked at and put into this," Cohen said.
Cogan said that he typically attended two meetings per week for
about six months as part of his involvement.
"I consider myself more of a facilitator and more of a numbers
guy," Cogan said.
Starting in mid-January, the city will begin operation of a
shuttle service to make up for the the loss of spaces at the
existing parking lot on the site during construction. That shuttle
van will run from the Northside to downtown.
Outgoing Alderwoman Susan Blumenthal, D-3rd, attended the event,
but told The Ithaca Journal afterward that she still has
reservations about the site chosen for the garage. "I think better
planning would have led to a decision to rebuild the Green Street
garage," Blumenthal said. "It would have been better in terms of
convenience for shoppers and employees, and also saved money.
