Hello to All.

I am sorry to have waited so long to give the eulogy for RenSquare. I am confident that we are finally at the end. From this point forward, there will be no more negative talk of the old RenSquare team. No more shots at our pal, Mike Power[less], etc. I will miss his empty blustering at those public meetings. From now on, it is only constructive initiatives, and a positive attitude.

That being said, the battle for the corner of Main and Clinton may not be over. Seen below, are my team’s latest architectural renderings for the land that was to be used for the PAC. It shows housing, retail, etc. Interestingly, it shows each and every component that Mayor Duffy is on record as saying he strongly supports. These renderings, along with a full presentation, were formally presented to the Rochester City Council at an executive session last month. The mayors office has been in possession of my plans since last September. Members of City Council have “instructed” me to start getting the necessary funds and begin acquiring properties to take my plan to the next stage. I have a first class team of professionals on my team such as Hanlon Architects, and DDS Engineering. We have spent considerable time, money, and effort over the course of the last year to get to this point. I began putting this team together, and working behind the scenes, only after hearing the mayor publicly ask for an “alternate plan B” over a year ago.

Now the mayor is saying he is going to call a meeting of private developers to get ideas for the corner. I cannot help feeling perplexed by this. Despite a well thought out plan, despite several meetings with the Mayors office, and a complete presentation to the entire City Council, there is still no mention of my plan. It is as if there is a reluctance to acknowledge me and my efforts. My fear, of course, is that the Mayor has his own ideas, and his own group of buddies, that he would like to see do this instead.

Fortunately, I have my property, and the complete cooperation of the other key property owners. Soon, the property owners will be part of a new coalition. We will band together to ensure that everyone gets a fair shake. Especially, Phyllis Cohen and some other older owners who desperately need to sell their properties. There may still be some drama at the corner. Eventually, my plan will have to be recognized by the Mayor, whether he wants to or not. I am in negotiations with all of the other owners as I write this update.

Lastly, I heard Maggie say on TV yesterday, “the MCC campus could not go into the old Main Street location for the same reasons that stopped the project”. What does that mean?? It fit last week, but not anymore?? Actually, if a private development went on the corner, it works as her staging area, and then we build! MCC would be where they originally wanted to be. My project gets the injection of 4500 people to make it work. Everybody wins, right? I wish I could re-engage MCC on their original site. This would be the only way to salvage any value from the completely wasted 24 million dollars. At least some value would be derived from the money spent on the MCC portion of the project.

So, it looks like the curtain does not quite yet close on the theater location of Main and Clinton. I will update this blog when I get some info on the meeting that the Mayor is calling for.

Talk soon.
Neil

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.