Governor Kathy Hochul came to Rochester Monday to announce a $10 million plan to revitalize a key downtown intersection that has fallen into squalor. The corner of Main Street and North Clinton Avenue has presented a row of decayed storefronts falling into increasing disrepair over years of the city trying to do something about it. Now the state is promising funds to transform the block of four historic buildings into middle-income housing units and modern storefronts, removing one of the last un-rebuilt areas of downtown.
Mayor Malik Evans has called the block an “abomination and a crying shame.” He said there will no longer be a gaping, embarassing hole at the center of Rochester’s efforts to invest in downtown. Past efforts to renovate it including the former Metrocenter plan failed.
The plan calls for rehabbing the former Edwards Building on St. Paul Street, adding 114 housing units and commercial space. Alta Vista will be a mixed-income housing building at Franklin and Pleasant Streets. Main Street Commons will be developed as an outdoor public space similar to Parcel 5 down the street, linking St. Paul Street with Clinton Avenue. And the former Kresge Building, now the Family Dollar Store, will be redeveloped into a boutique hotel on East Main.