A look at the Ithaca construction projects shaping the city’s future

Ithaca is undergoing a wave of new development, with projects like Meadow on Seneca, FOUND’s move to SouthWorks and new apartment buildings The Aurora and The Breeze. From affordable housing to upscale residences and revitalized commercial space, these initiatives reflect a broad vision for a more inclusive, sustainable and vibrant Ithaca.

Meadow on Seneca housing project set for September
Meadow on Seneca, a 70-unit building slated for the corner of North Meadow and West Seneca Streets in Ithaca that will have a mix of affordable and integrated supportive housing, will start construction as early as the middle of September, according to Robert Cain, director of real estate development for CSD Housing, a service development consulting company based in Pittsford that is focused on helping not-for-profit clients develop affordable housing units for low income individuals and families, homeless individuals and families and those with special needs.

“All the funding has been secured,” Cain said. “We’re looking forward to [completing] the final details of the permitting, but there should be no issues with closing in September of this year.”

The site will have a roughly 19-month construction duration. “Pretty much, two years from this fall it will be completed and mostly leased up,” Cain said.

This project is unique in that it is owned by Rehabilitation Support Services (RSS), a not-for-profit agency that provides a range of services for individuals with mental health and substance use disorders.

“This is one of their first models of this type of housing,” Cain said.

Thirty-five of the units will be supportive in nature, and RSS will provide services for those residents who were formerly homeless, are experiencing wellness challenges or are otherwise at risk.

“Internally, it will be staffed like a hotel with a concierge-type atmosphere,” Cain said. There will be about nine full-time staff members in the building.

The first floor will have a podium deck, which includes a generous amount of office space for leasing, residential services, some community space and bicycle racks for residents. There will be an above-ground garage for resident parking, but Cain said the project focuses on giving its residents convenient multi-modal transportation options so they can take advantage of the walkable area to downtown and other amenities, embracing local bicycle and ride-share programs. There is also a bus stop located around the corner.

He added that the building will be one of the first to break ground that complies with the new, recently implemented Ithaca FEMA floodplain standards.

“We had to elevate the building to be compliant,” Cain said, adding that this change came with a significant increase to the project’s total budget, which comes in at about $35 million.

The building is designed by Passero Associates. “The vision of it is to be an entranceway, beacon-type building for those traveling north along South Meadow,” Cain said.

There will be a dog park and playground for residents as well as a landscaped rooftop terrace.

“It’s a very urban-type design that will be very well landscaped around the perimeter of the building,” Cain said.

The building is designed to be all-electric and eco-friendly, with solar panels and an electric heat-pump system.

It will be constructed on what is currently a vacant lot, though there was one particular challenge to building on this site; some elements of the entryway design will likely contain large artwork or other features that pay homage to a large tree that people were reluctant to say goodbye to, Cain said.

“We want to recognize its importance to the community,” he said. “I know there was some opposition to cutting down the tree; we even tried designs that included a donut shape around it, but that would have damaged the root ball, so we came to the conclusion that it was infeasible to preserve it, even though we wanted to. One of our aspirations is, as it’s removed, to preserve portions of it and to figure out how a local artist or another company might be able to repurpose it.”

Ithaca’s antique mall FOUND a new home

What is the biggest goal this summer for SouthWorks, Ithaca’s sprawling industrial complex-turned would-be mixed used community of the future (with the best view in town)?

“Getting FOUND into their space,” said Robert Lewis, development project manager for SouthWorks.

Currently, there is fire safety and sprinkler work happening at the site, located in the former Morse Chain/Emerson Power facility at 640 S. Aurora St., with the majority of the work to transform FOUND in Ithaca’s new 20,000 square-foot space, scheduled to take place this summer.

The construction company is USC Builds, which will be working on the project with CJS Architects. Both companies are based in Rochester.

Lewis said the new store will likely open by late summer/early fall and that its relocation to the space is one of the first steps in a long process that would transform the 850,000-square-foot former industrial facility on South Hill into a new neighborhood that would include retail and industrial space, restaurants and new housing development.

FOUND in Ithaca is a multi-dealer antique and vintage marketplace with about 45 dealers that assemble an ever-changing array of hand-picked items encompassing a broad range of styles, including furniture that is 19th-century-formal in style, mid-century, cottage style and industrial, as well as glass, pottery, estate and vintage jewelry, vintage clothing and art.

“We are very excited,” Lewis said about SouthWorks providing a new space for FOUND, which is more than double the size of the 7,000-square-foot warehouse the store currently occupies at its location on Cherry Street.

“We are in a state where we’ve got this amazing resource in the form of these historic buildings, and we really need to find people go on the journey with us, and FOUND is game,” he said. “FOUND is happy to be in an industrial space, and they’ve been in an industrial space before. They are the right fit to help us walk this path together.”

The new location will allow the marketplace to have more booths, cases and back-of-house space. “It will give them a more flexible space, and it’s just a real expansion of their operation,” Lewis said.

FOUND’s Cherry Street property was recently purchased by Tompkins County for the purpose of constructing a new homeless shelter.

“They were in a tough spot,” Lewis said. “They needed to find a new home, and find something that worked for them from a retail perspective, and we were happy to come up with something that, from a retail perspective, made sense.”

The financial aspects of FOUND’s relocation are “all buttoned up,” Lewis said. “We got the financing,” he said, “and we’re ready to go.”

The location is on the downhill edge of the historic buildings on Lower Morse Road.

“It’s sitting there with a pretty commanding view of the city with the lake right there,” Lewis said. “It’s perfect.”  

“This whole [SouthWorks] project could take a decade, so the journey from here to there is going to involve making this place feel like a real place where people are welcome, where there is something exciting going on,” he added. “FOUND in many ways is the first step in that, and we’re excited for the next one.”

The next tenants likely to move in are a day care provider and an industrial tenant, but Lewis is not able to give more details at this time.

Parking for FOUND will be right next to the store, with access where the Emerson Power sign is currently.

“Bear right, and you’ll be at FOUND,” Lewis said.

Though it is somewhat tucked away as the first big SouthWorks tenant, the hope is that people will embrace the store as a destination, much as they did at its former location.

“We are certainly trying to make sure we do what we need to do to make sure FOUND is publicized and visible and accessible,” Lewis said. “We need them to be successful. Every bit as much as they need us, we need them, and we’re so excited to make this work for them.”

Other projects that are underway right now:

The Aurora apartments

Those driving through Ithaca on Route 13 have likely noticed the construction happening near GreenStar and the new Cayuga Medical Building — it’s hard to miss. The building going up this summer is The Aurora, a new residential building located at 201 and 301 Cayuga Park Lane, which will feature 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom apartments, as well as a fitness club and second-floor elevated sun deck and pool with a lounge.

The Aurora’s 141 upscale apartments, which will sit atop 17,000 feet of rental and commercial space, range in size from 567-square-foot studios to 1,325-square-foot three-bedroom units.

There are nine “build to suit” commercial spaces located below the apartments. The project is slated to be move-in ready by early 2026.

The Breeze apartments

Construction at the Breeze, a residential building going up at the former Ithaca Gun Factory overlooking Ithaca Falls, is also underway.

The market-rate and affordable apartment community will offer studios, one-bedroom apartments and two-bedroom apartments, all with individual balconies.

An original factory smokestack will remain as an historic landmark, and plans include a publicly accessible walkway to an overlook above Ithaca Falls.

The project has been in the works for decades, with the federal Environmental Protection Agency spending $4.2 million for partial cleanup of the site in 2004.

In March 2021, a remedial action work plan was submitted to the state. In December 2021, 121-125 Lake Street LLC, owned by Todd Fox, acquired the site, with Visum Development Group LLC as the new developer.

Construction is expected to be complete later this year.

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that FOUND in Ithaca was displaced and referred to its current location at 227 Cherry St. as its former location. FOUND is currently open on Cherry Street and does not plan to close for longer than a few days during its move to SouthWorks. Tompkins Weekly regrets the mischaracterization and would also like to note that FOUND has another new location, in DeWitt Mall, where they will feature contemporary local artists and used art supplies. The open date for that store is July 1.