Board OKs Town Hall option for Cornell

But the university's real estate department still has time to decide whether it wants to buy the building from the town, and town residents still have time to protest the town's agreement to sell the building to Cornell.

Monday night, the Ithaca Town Board voted unanimously to confirm Cornell's option to buy the building and to authorize its sale to Cornell for $315,000, should the university exercise that option to buy.

The vote opens up a 30-day window when town residents could petition for a townwide referendum on the building's sale to Cornell. The number of town signatures on the petition would have to be at least equal to 5 percent of town residents who voted in the last gubernatorial election, or 271.

The town could not sell the building to Cornell until that 30-day period is up. But the university can extend its option-to-buy period through June 2001 as long as it continues to pay $1,500 a month to pay for the former Town Hall's maintenance costs, as it has been doing since October. That payment does not count toward the purchase price.

Cornell also has put $10,000 toward the purchase price of the building under its agreement with the town. It could extend its option-to-buy period through June 2002 if it put another $10,000 toward the purchase price by July 1, 2001 and still continue to pay the $1,500 monthly maintenance fee.

As yet, no residents have expressed opposition to the building's sale to Cornell. At Monday's Town Board meeting, only Scott Whitham and George Lyons from Historic Ithaca spoke about it, telling the board that the 118-year-old, two-story building that was initially a residence has little historical value and that they supported its sale to Cornell.

Cornell's first preference for its planned 130,000-square-foot office building is still the site of the Tompkins County Trust Co. on The Commons at 110 N. Tioga St., said John Majeroni, director of Cornell's real estate department, Monday night.

He said if Cornell used the Town Hall site, it would be used in conjunction with other parcels, which he said he couldn't yet name. The building is surrounded by parking lots, and the corner property to its east is the planned site of a 12-story Hilton Hotel.

But Majeroni did say that Cornell did not want to interfere with the hotel project and had been regularly talking to its developers, Bill Avramis, James Cherocci and Gus and Nick Lambrou, all of Ithaca.