Oh Where Oh Where is MCC?

One More Note,

Where is MCC? In their own last correspondence, they said they would publish their short list of their new choices for a downtown campus on 4/26. They are missing deadlines, and they are not exactly noted for their speed when it comes to making deals. I wonder if the City Council will declare the Sibleys building blighted. Perhaps Elaine could speed up the progress of this most important move.

Seriously, where is MCC in all of this? They have always been the most important integer in this equation. They still are. When MCC finally makes their decision on where they are going, that is when the question of how to proceed with the corner will be definitively answered. In the meantime, I will continue to pay my taxes and try to improve my property. I am really wary of Elaine's posturing. That "blighted" stuff is simply awful. The govt gets people out, and replaces them with their friends or themselves. All due to the horrible recent Supreme Court decision.

I will keep everyone in the loop. Talk soon.

More Trouble

Good Morning All,

There is new trouble here for Main and Clinton. There was an article in Mondays D&C. This article quoted one Elaine Spaull. Elaine, as most of City Council, has no clue of what is happening on the corner. I doubt that most of them have been on the corner in the past several years. The disturbing part of the article was Ms. Spaull's quote concerning the speed of private development, or lack of.

She is obviously not quite up to speed. In the past six months three new businesses have been created. Two new store fronts are completed and the third is currently under construction. A new full service grocery store complete with fresh produce and a meat market will be open in two weeks at the old McDonalds location on Main street. I have opened a new deli called Food at 1 Clinton Ave, and will have a new restaurant and dining room open by June 1st at the corner, in my dad's old jewelry store. Furthermore, we have been denied by the State of New York to rip down the current 2 1/2 story billboard, re-facade the existing building and install a beautiful new state of the art digital billboard.

Wow! How out of touch is our City Council?? Let's see...they took 11 years, 24 million dollars, and did absolutely nothing! They didn't move one shovel of dirt, and they didn't make a single acquisition! Hey City Council, where exactly did all that money go? I open two businesses, lease a large space to a new grocer, put a plan forward to permanently fix the corner, and Elaine Spaull wants to see if they can declare my corner blighted! I wonder exactly when the last time Elaine actually stood on the corner. Apparently, Elaine is concerned about how fast private development is moving.

I will continue to fight the County, the City, the esteemed RGRTA, or anyone else who tries to steal my property. Whether you use eminent domain[I beat that one already], or your "blighted neighborhood" nonsense, I will fight to keep what is mine. Oh by the way, I have had a comprehensive plan in front of the Council and the Mayor's office for over two years. I am negotiating to purchase many other buildings in the old Rensquare footprint. The fight continues. In the meantime, please visit my new restaurant located directly on the "blighted" corner of Main and Clinton on June 1st.

Now The Fun Starts

Good Morning All,

I am thrilled to report that it seems like the RenSquare players are finally coming to their senses! The RGRTA woke up from their temporary coma, and announced last week that they think their original location for the new and improved bus terminal should be the original site on the "old" RenSquare footprint. What a shock, they are thinking. Now, it should only be a short time before MCC comes to the same conclusion. Of course, this humble correspondent predicted all of this months ago.

We now have The RGRTA saying exactly what I said before the old RenSquare fell apart. Coming "back" to the old location is the only way to get ANY value from the 24 million dollars that has been completely squandered during the 12 year RenSquare fiasco. It makes perfect sense. After MCC gets a new team of experts to examine other locations, they will come to the same conclusion...Main Street, was, and still is, the best place for the new campus.

Now, the plot thickens once again. The County government is back in play. Although the County recently offered Phyllis Cohen almost $900,000.00 for all of her properties during the RenSquare debacle, they are now foreclosing on her Main Street properties for back taxes. The timing is a bit suspect. The County Government here is simply atrocious. They are underhanded, and will stop at nothing to get what they want. Remember, Phyllis owns a common wall with the County on the only building that they control, Gateway Center. I recently leased that building to a local woman who is renovating the old McDonalds building and turning it into a small grocery store. It is scheduled to open at the end of March. That would make things a bit difficult for the County when they realize that they are coming back to the Main Street site.

Rather than try to deal with Phyllis, they are trying to foreclose for $24,000.00 in back taxes.

I am negotiating a sale with Phyllis as this is being written. There is no reason that either the City, or the County, don't simply make an offer to purchase the properties. After all, they have purposely driven all the values down so they could "steal" these properties at ridiculously low prices. Most of this news is very good for me personally. I need MCC and the RGRTA to come back to Main Street so my plan for the corner can come to fruition. Now that the PAC is headed for Main Street at the old McCurdys site, my property at the corner is available for development. I have a great plan for that corner. In the meantime, I have completely remodeled 1 Clinton Ave. This was the old Amiels sub shop. I am in the process of remodeling my fathers old jewelry store into a diner style lunch counter that will be connected to the new restaurant on Clinton. I should be done with those renovations by June 1st. We are now open for business at FOOD. We are serving all types of breakfast and lunch items. I hope you will visit us.

I think this issue will finally come to closure in the coming weeks. Phyllis Cohen's property is the lynch pin. She owns all of the important properties on that block. Phyllis has been foreclosed on her personal residence, and that will come to auction at the end of March. Interestingly, just days after she received the auction notice on her home, the County piled right on and started their own legal action to acquire her properties. They are a real lovely group of individuals.

I expect this to play out very quickly and I will update this blog as things happen. Talk soon.

Neil

EXCLUSIVE - Renderings of new downtown restaurant Food, plus preview of new HD billboard for corner of Main & Clinton

Some renderings of the new restaurant "Food":

A current and future look at the new billboard for Main & Clinton:


Current:

Future:

"Food" Coming to Downtown Rochester

Where Are We Now?

Good Morning All,

It is been awhile since we have spoken. There is a great deal of news to share. Some of this news may be shocking to some. First, the great news. Food is coming to Main and Clinton! My new restaurant called Food is scheduled to open on March 10th. The signs will be up next week. We will be serving breakfast and lunch 5 days a week, M-F, 6:00AM-4:00PM. We will be located at 1 Clinton Ave in the old Amiels Sub Shop location and only serving takeout until I can renovate the adjacent store (226 East Main Street) for expansion. This was my fathers jewelry store for over fifty years. In preparation, I have evicted the pawn shop from the corner in order to provide a nice place for people to eat at a counter, or take out good quality food. My idea was to knock out the wall separating the two stores and build a diner style lunch counter where my dad's store was located. There is a great need to feed the students, office workers, and new construction workers arriving in April to work on Midtown Plaza. My potential problem was, and still is, whether or not the City would give me a variance on the need for a public restroom. The store is very small, and a standard ADA approved bathroom would take over half of the usable space in the store. Obviously, if I had to comply with normal regulations, I would not be able to do the sit-down portion.

At the same time that I was contemplating this move, I approached Lamar Advertising to discuss the hideous billboard that is "stuck" to my building. I wanted that eyesore removed. Lamar, however, had other ideas. They have been a part of that corner for over 75 years. They want to remain part of that corner and part of Rochester's renovation plan. They have offered to remove that monstrosity and replace it with a much smaller, but beautiful HD digital billboard. This comes with a price tag of app. $500,000. They are willing to make that investment if I give them a new 15 year lease. Of course I said yes. I have seen their renderings, and the new look of the corner with my new restaurant, new digital board, and the facade fixed up is nothing less than fantastic. Keep in mind I am talking about private money. The only thing I need from the City is a little cooperation, and honest dealings. Sounds simple...but, well, you know!

Now comes the good stuff. I decided to quietly reach out to the City and show them the plans from both Lamar, and our new restaurant. I will have these renderings posted in the next couple of days. As I presented all my drawings and shared my vision for the immediate future of the corner, I felt as if the response I was getting was rather dull. I fully expected that the City would jump at the chance to both beautify and improve the corner at no expense to them. Well, the bomb dropped...RenSquare!!! No, please, anything but RENSQUARE!!!

Yes! RenSquare! The utterance of that name gets me crazy. I asked them what RenSquare has to do with anything. After all, Maggie did publicly say it was dead. Ann Kress and MCC said it was dead, the Mayor said it was dead. Mark Aesh said it was dead. Actually, Mark said screw everybody, he was going on his own and building his own terminal further North. Whew! Good, let him go way up North and take all those buses and his arrogance with it. As you may remember, I virtually begged Ann Kress to talk with us and show her my plan for the MCC campus. After being unresponsive for a long time, MCC said they were taking a step back and looking at all their options. I believe MCC has appointed a new committee to look at possible locations. Another committee! Another study! LOL. What pure unadulterated crap from all of them.

I was asked to "hang on" for awhile because, are you ready for this one? The parties are at the table trying to work out a last minute deal to salvage the free money. What parties? The same group we have come to know so well. The Mayor, the County Executive, The RGRTA, and the new player, Ann Kress representing MCC. I must admit, I don't blame them for being remorseful over the loss of the free money. I also understand that none of these players have the money to do the project. The only one not present here is the RBTL. They have had quite enough of this fiasco. So, if the RBTL is not part of this plan, what happens to my corner? I smell another eminent domain fight brewing. I am dusting off the armor and meeting with my attorneys to make sure that they don't try anything cute. Even if this new and hopefully last, attempt at resurrecting this horrible plan is successful, the plan still stinks. It is very bad for the city. The next time this dies I want it cremated. Then we can spread the ashes at Main and Clinton, and be done with it. Let private developers do this and it will be done correctly and profitably.

This my problem, I need to get my plan moving. I cannot wait anymore. The people that are working and living downtown need something to happen. Can anyone imagine how these RenSquare resurrection meetings are going? We have a group of people who can't stand each other and have nothing but distrust for each other trying to make a deal. I am betting that they wont get it together. In the meantime, the City has granted an application for a new grocery store on Main Street next to the Gateway Center in the old McDonald's building. I am fielding inquiries on a daily basis for new businesses to come downtown. This is our chance to spark some changes on this important corner. No more political nonsense! For those of you who follow my blog and agree with my vision, start calling your City Council people, the Mayor, and anyone else who can help us move forward. In the meantime, I am moving with haste to get Food open and remove the billboard. I welcome any questions or comments. I will update this blog regularly and keep everyone in the know.

Neil

Channel 8 Interviews New Main & Clinton Grocery Store Owner