Rochester’s City Council last night cleared the way for two major developments, one downtown and one along the Rochester-Brighton border.
Council voted to approve Mayor Lovely Warren’s request to sell part of the filled in Inner Loop to the Strong Museum. Working with local developers, the Strong plans to expand the museum and build an adjacent hotel with a water park. It will also have a parking garage, retail and commercial space and 250 residential units.
Mayor Warren says the Strong is already a national destination, and this will make it even more so with benefits for the entire East End.
Also approved last night was rezoning of the former Rochester Psych Center tower site on Elmwood Road for a mixed use residential, hotel and commercial project.
The abandoned 16-story tower will come down, replaced eventually by more than 500 apartments, plus garden homes, a 110 room hotel and three commercial buildings. The developers say it will take about six years for all of this to be realized.