Jul 12

Jul 12 How Rome's economic development projects survived the COVID pandemic By Mayor Jacqueline Izzo

There is no question the last year and a half has been a test of our strength and resolve to ever changing NYS health, business and lifestyle virus mitigation measures. Now, we are finally learning to manage the virus with an eye toward returning to a more normal style of work and everyday living. We hold in our hearts all those who lost their battle with COVID and keep in our prayers our fellow citizens who are still recovering from this dreadful illness.

Throughout this entire ordeal, elected officials were challenged with juggling virus mitigation directives versus making sure our municipalities did not lose ground from an economic development, business or community perspective. The City of Rome is very fortunate because we kept all of our current and upcoming business development on a progressive path forward towards commencement and completion with only minimal disruptions due to COVID related issues.

The year 2020 saw a record amount of private investment throughout the city, estimated at over $100M. The city administration is very focused on ubiquitous development touching all corners of Rome and 2020/2021/2022 is no exception. The first multiuse housing project in many years was constructed and opened for residents in June 2020. DePaul Properties completely transformed the former Dewitt Clinton School property into a site now featuring a mix of newly constructed apartments with onsite amenities and townhouses. The complex represents an almost $20M investment by DePaul and is fully occupied. This year design and construction begins on the South James Street Overlook stretching our community’s canal development further west near Gryziec Field. A $500,000 CFA grant was obtained to begin many years of new improvements laid out for the NYS canal in south Rome. Hamilton College recently purchased land adjoining Bellamy Harbor Park near the Rome Navigation Center and construction has commenced for a $2M boathouse facility overlooking the canal.

The Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) is well underway with the completion of Coldpoint’s $5M manufacturing facility on the city’s west side bringing almost 50 jobs downtown. The Capitol Theatre is busy putting the final touches on its $2.5M DRI award with a completely renovated interior of the theatre, new roof, new seating and much more. The Capitol has targeted mid-July for its grand reopening to show off all the wonderful improvements. The REACH Center located on West Dominick Street has completed a $450,000 buildout of its Erie Blvd. space and THRIVE a business dedicated to providing co-working space is completely ready for tenants with the latest and greatest in technology and mobile office features for those looking for temporary working space. Technergetics purchased the former Gulla Funeral Home located on N. Washington Street and completed interior renovations over the winter and is working now on the exterior façade in preparation to move their 40 employees to downtown Rome. C&D Advertising is utilizing a DRI Business Assistance grant to ready its newly purchased property located on W. Court Street to move their operations to the downtown corridor. The Balanced Chef recently began full kitchen operations from their new site near the Capitol Theatre and now offers full service meal offerings to walk in customers. The city recently began construction of the new Copper City Commons with the intention of improving the W. Dominick Street and Gigliotti Avenue streetscapes to be more customer friendly with hardscape improvements, landscaping and outdoor seating areas for the restaurants along this corridor. The city is now designing the City Hall, City Green and Liberty/James parking garage DRI projects for renovations later this year and into 2022.

Construction is targeted to begin later this fall on Copper City Lofts, a 64 unit apartment complex, with an emphasis on housing those with artistic instincts. This project fits wonderfully with our burgeoning arts district and the W. Dominick Street corridor.

We are also in the midst of working with NYS DOT on a $2M transportation improvement (TAP) project on Erie Blvd. Major pedestrian and parking improvements will be undertaken between James Street and Madison Street. A key component of this project is creating a safe pedestrian environment along the vacant storefronts and foster business development and main street revival of this key downtown area. The project will also leverage the tremendous parking capacity of Freedom plaza while improving access to those public parking lots along Erie Blvd.

The West Rome Industrial Park welcomed a new tenant, OnePull, to the former Coldpoint facility earlier this year, a business specializing in supply chain for the alternative energy industry, which will is critical to the 21st century economy.

A new grocery option was added to the Rome market in June 2020 when Hannaford’s opened a beautiful new store on Chestnut Street in north Rome. A nearby neighbor, Delta Luxury Apartments, added an additional 16 market rate apartments on Merrick Road completing the total buildout to 64 units fully occupied. Buck Construction has recently announced plans for Phase 5 that will add single family housing with 64 townhouses through a unique conservation subdivision design. A Complete Streets Study will be underway soon to assess and develop plans for the Chestnut Street corridor to meet the growing transportation demand of bicycles and pedestrians. This study comes on the heels of the first Complete Street Study for the Floyd Ave. corridor.

Griffiss Business and Technology Park continues to grow and flourish even given the pandemic restrictions. Orgill, Inc. just completed their $70+ million dollar distribution center six months early. Just recently, products and delivery trucks started leaving the facility to fill hard goods orders throughout the northeast. The facility provides 225 new job opportunities in warehousing and distribution. Oneida County completed a $12M restoration of Bldg 100, formerly base operations, which is now the new home of Innovare Advancement Center (an open campus research and development space), the Griffiss Institute and UAS Operations Center. Construction of SkyDome, the largest indoor/outdoor UAS testing environment in the country, is progressing and will open later this year. A 40,000 square foot office building near Spressos will welcome its new tenants in the next few weeks, and the ribbon was just cut on the Parks’ most innovative mixed use project, AirCity Lofts. Phase one features 84 market rate apartments, all completely rented, with two new restaurants scheduled to open later this summer and fall. Crust Kitchen and Bar will offer handcrafted soups, salads, sandwiches and a bourbon bar, and Boss Bowls brings a fully dedicated acai café to Rome. AirCity Phase 2 is accepting new resident applications for 72 new market rate apartment units ready for occupancy later this fall.

There is a significant need for new single-family housing options in Rome, and soon Bonacio Construction will be creating those new units at the Woodhaven site on Floyd Avenue in close proximity to the Griffiss Park, MVCC and Rome Free Academy. The City of Rome, Rome Industrial Development Corporation (RIDC), Mohawk Valley EDGE, Oneida County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA) and Bonacio Construction, are working hard to iron out the details of the sale, infrastructure improvements and new housing options with site work slated to begin later this year and construction of new homes in 2022.

We are also keeping a close eye on annual improvements to the city’s infrastructure with a $14.7M biodigester project underway at our sewage treatment plant, four bridge/culvert replacements totaling $5.4M and city administration is working with landowners to secure approximately 70 easements to allow Phase 3 ($16.5M) of the water expansion to continue to North Rome and eventually supply the Town of Verona with city water for its residents. The administration is also securing easements to replace the 40+ year old sewage interceptor line with a new $14M pipe.

No single entity performed better during the pandemic in our city than the Rome Health system. Our hospital provided top-notch quality of care to many, many patients afflicted with COVID and did an outstanding job. Rome Health will embark on an $8M physician’s office complex on the main hospital campus later this summer as they work hard to expand the offerings of our healthcare system. It was never more evident how important they are to our city than during the virus.

The return of quality of life events remains a focus of ours as we exit the pandemic. This year the Honor America Days Pops Concert and fireworks on the lawn of Fort Stanwix takes place on Saturday, July 31. Rome Rotary Club will present CanalFest at Bellamy Harbor Park August 6-8 and planning is underway for several more events this fall and winter.

Our city is growing from a residential standpoint with a strong real estate market and new housing options added to the mix. As I stated earlier, we are seeing an unprecedented level of private sector investment and we must continue to prepare our city to accept new business opportunities that will become reality with new population growth.

Jacqueline Izzo is the Mayor of Rome, New York

Special thanks to The Genesis Group for facilitating this article. The Genesis Group is a civic organization that unites Business and Community Leaders working to advance regional Economic, Social and Cultural interests, and to foster unity and cooperation in the Mohawk Valley region of Upstate New York. For more information on this type of analytical and analysis and data collection technologies, please visit the Genesis Center for Analytical Analysis website at TheGenesisGroup.org