The "someone stepping up" is a local person - Mike Nolan. The idea is to create a "Town Square" in the Cooper/Titus area. Existing businesses will not be pushed out. The H.O.G. would stay as is. A gathering place for the community - and a walkable area for shopping and leisurely strolling.
The best part about it, in my opinion, is that this is a local idea, a local person proposing it - not some out of state millionaire who could give a rip about community, or a developer out to make a quick buck at the expense of the community.
Good luck and I certainly hope it comes to fruition! How exciting! I hope he gets the financing and the support he needs.
Here are some screenshots/links to the stories about this, and a Facebook page called I-square about the project.
Link to story in MPN.
Link to D&C story.
Wham13 Story.
14 comments:
This is such Wonderful news for Irondequoit!
I agree Jax, a local person investing in Irondequoit is so great! I'm optimistic that he will see it through because he lives here.
I was also impressed where I read that when he purchased Irondequoit Hots he lowered their rent. I can't remember where I read that now though.
If you check out I-Square on facebook Mike Nolan answers questions and he has said that he is re-locating the businesses that are presently there and he isn't going to raise their rent when they move into new buildings!
WOW, that is unheard of!
I hope they can get financing because Mike and his wife sound like people doing something for the right reasons. I am so sick of greedy developer's that could care less about communities. It's only about the almighty dollar for so many of them.
The Nolan's sound like the real deal. I hope all of Irondequoit stands behind them! :)
Very exciting news! Wonder if there might be room for our long overdue new library in this complex. No pun intended. A quarter of a century in the same old buildings without any additions, remodeling or improvements is ridiculous. New carpet and paint does not equal remodeling. Sorry Mr. Ament!
If the W. Irondequoit library has raised enough money to build in the I-Square plans I suppose they could get a new W.I. library there if the developer agreed with it.
I don't think it's up to a private business person to build for a public library. Besides, they are talking about having some small local bookstore in there and actual businesses that sell things.
How fair would it be for the E. Irondequoit library patrons if W. Irondequoit got a new library built for them?
OMG- it's always about the library! Here's a great story about such an exciting project and here comes the whining about the library AGAIN!
Why would a private developer fund our library?
Have you seen what's happening to our economy lately? The stock market? Gas prices? 401K funds? etc.
Carpet and paint that didn't raise my taxes is looking pretty good to me right now... :)
Supervisor/Board discussed raising taxes at their chat in seabreeze. It was suggested they follow the choice of the Supervisor in Penfield who told department heads to reduce by 10%. After some unreasoned excuses our Supervisor commented "that is what we did last year". Of course that is what penfield did two years in a row.
The Board seems proud of their spending and will present another tax increase in the highest taxed town in the USA.
tim golan
A Private developer just built the Gates library. It is worth visiting to see what the private sector can do for less than 1/2 the cost proposed by Irondequoit leaders in the past. It is very nice, very new, and very inexpensive compared to the ridiculous costs presented for kings park and a new build by the government.
There were proposals in the past for a library branch in the Center area. Town opted to pursue Kings Park vigorously and never present a choice to residents.
With a tax base stagnant and an opportunity to void the Mall Pilot the Town Board is hell bent on making sure the EICSD will subsidize the Congel inability to compete in the Irondequoit marketplace.
At the Chat session one board member falsely stated the Pilot Increment Payments to NOT go to the County. That was not true and not one Board member would inform the residents of the truth.
Over $300,000,000 Pilot Increment Payments will go to pay the Mortgage and not the Residents. The Town is buying Congel a building with your money and town board will not tell the truth.
Somebody asked about a library at the I-Square project on their facebook page. Here's what the answer was:
Michael Nolan: We do not currently have plans to include the Public Library as we need to focus south of Titus for the time being. Would love to see something done at the NW corner along with Chase bank, but my plate is to full to do it properly.
Friday at 10:24pm
I would have no problem with a private developer building a new library - but you can't expect a developer to just build a new library for you. I would think that there would be plans and fundraising before that could happen....and then there is the "fairness" of it all - if you're going to get a new library for the west branch, why shouldn't the east branch get a new library too? If you're thinking of a new consolidated library - why should it be on the west side of town when people on the east side of town use the library too? We've heard this argument before - even though people claim that Irondequoit is ONE town, that there is no "East/West" Irondequoit - there is still that divide.
The School Districts alone create most of that divide. But, whatever.
You know what would be great? If the town took over Medley Centre - you could have a huge complex to house a community center, a pool, a library, the P.D. - even though some W.I. residents might not like traveling to E.I. to go to the library - it's a great complex for such things. Might as well - Congel sure as hell isn't using it for anything.
Speaking of Congel and PILOTS - what board member said "Increment Payments do NOT go to the County."? That is ridiculous - of course they do. It states it right in the PILOT that they do. All PILOT payments are paid to C.O.M.I.D.A. (County Of Monroe Industrial Development Agency)- then they distribute the money to the towns and S.D. - and COMIDA uses some of that money to "pay the mortgage" for Bersin Properties.
Here is the PILOT pdf.
On page 39 of the document (44 on the pdf) it says that COMIDA is the Lender and Bersin is the Borrower. COMIDA is the "grantor of such mortgage" and on and on. They talk about "mortgage" in the PILOT for more than 40 pages.
As I understand it, COMIDA holds title to the property contained in the PILOT - COMIDA leases it back to Bersin Properties and he gets out of paying full taxes on the property because government agencies don't pay real property taxes. Since COMIDA holds the title on the property (and they are listed as the "mortgagee" and Bersin is the "mortgagor"), any payments he makes is also a type of "mortgage payment".
Did that board member even read the PILOT agreement? Lemme guess - it was S.A., right?
Good grief.
That Board Member voted to approve the Pilot Agreement in 2009. If you recall the supervisor had stated that residents would have a plenty of time to view the Agreement before it was approved.
Can anyone think of one reason the Board Members chose to hide the mortgage deal, the Comida Bond section, and the magnitude of the tax break from the public ?
Two years later they still will not tell the truth about the deal that came shortly after $115,000 is contributions were made to special interests.
Mall Expert Prange Way has stated the Mall will harm the region. Town Leaders claim they have "crunched the numbers" but refuse to discuss or share those numbers.
I'm reading some of the "suggestions" on the D&C article and the I-Square FB page.....so many people want the library and non-profits to be included in this project.
You know - entities that don't pay property taxes.
Jeebuz.
Parking seems lacking for a Library. About 85-100 car dedicated parking would be appropriate for 20,000 to 30,000 sf library. (per Thomas)
Gates new library is being leased; i believe they are paying property taxes. Developer built the building for less than 1/2 of Irondequoits estimates for a new library.
Private sector found a way to save so much money on a project that the Library could lease, pay taxes and still save a ton over government building a facility.
I doubt it would happen. There would probably be a grievance filed against using the private sector for a "public" project like the library.
Another grievance for sure Jax.
tgolan, regarding Medley- haven't you heard? We are protected this time. The old Town Board told us we were. So no worries. cough, cough.
Then there is the present Town Board that promised to take a hard line with Congel. cough, cough.
History just keeps repeating itself.
"Then there is the present Town Board that promised to take a hard line with Congel. cough, cough."
Well, one of them (Marasco) seems to want to. The other two? Not so much.
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