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Plans Unfold for State Street’s Creative Corridor
The Stardust Foundation of Central New York is collecting properties to pave the way to build a “creative corridor.” The foundation plans to create a streetscape on State Street, from Genesee to Dill streets. It is acquiring properties to create a consistent look and plans to provide wireless Internet to the block.
Stardust has already acquired some of the buildings and is in the process of buying more. Syracuse development firm Pioneer will be the property managers, Stardust Executive Director Guy Cosentino said.
Spirits Tavern and Cafe's owner John Stevens sold the eatery for $300,000 in early ’08, and shut its doors at the end of February. The developers will temporarily use the bar as a staging area to store construction materials and offer a place for crews to work in inclement weather. Construction will begin in the coming four or five months, Cosentino said.
Stardust also bought the building north of Spirits for $350,000. The building, 24 State St., houses Yesteryear's Cafe, which will remain open and operational. Choices for Change and the Cayuga Chapter of Red Cross also will remain up and running at their current locations. The service organizations add a nice mix to downtown, Cosentino added. Next to the Red Cross, Cosentino said the Stardust Institute for Entrepreneurship will offer a business incubator. This will allow new businesses and start-ups a place to build their businesses and customer bases while using provided telephone service, fax machines, copiers and other expensive basics.
The Pioneer firm will head the multi-building project, as well as manage the properties. Stardust is responsible for the financing. Stardust likely will announce the purchase of the First Niagara Bank properties soon, Cosentino said. However, the bank and the nearby Dill Street drive-through are not moving. They will lease the property and continue to operate.
The three-story building attached to First Niagara Bank will house Stardust, the Downtown Auburn Business Improvement District, and Pioneer. “We hope this will be an economic development one-stop,” Cosentino said.
As design plans are released, property pricing hikes usually follow - as does energy and development, the keys to the whole arrangement, Cosentino said. “Money will follow money,” he said.
They also want to encourage the creation of a restaurant row. The Spirit’s building could be reborn into a different eatery at that point.
The organization also purchased 117 Genesee Street, known to some as Martin's Jewelers, known to locals as “the green monster,” Cosentino said. “We need to picture it without the green paint. It has some real potential,” he said. Some of that potential is to revive the practice of people living downtown, a key to the area's revitalization, developers said.
Stardust is not buying Nash's Art Supply, but rather looking at the three story building as a model for both the commercial front on the first floor and the residential unit above.
“We've known this for 20 years, if you want a downtown to thrive you have to have this mix of residential and commercial,” Cosentino said.
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