The Rochester City Council is holding a public forum Thursday evening on the proposed Rochester Performing Arts Center…which Mayor Lovely Warren wants to see built on Parcel 5, the last piece of vacant land on the former Midtown Plaza site.
It’s 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the City Council Chambers, and people can sign up to speak now by phone or at the door. Council wants to hear both comments and ideas for the project and for Parcel 5, following a letter sent to council last week by a group of arts organizations including Geva Theater. The letter questions how the combined arts center, residential tower and retail block will be funded and how it will operate.
Geva says in a statement it doesn’t take a position one-way-or-another on the proposed Rochester Broadway Theater League and Morgan Development project. But it says many questions need answers and the project needs a full impact study, as only a feasibility study has been done so far. Geva says it raised that issue with Mayor Warren, got no response, and so turned to City Council. Geva held a press conference about its concerns today.
Meanwhile, the Performing Arts Center has become inevitably wound up in the mayoral primary campaign between Lovely Warren, Rachel Barnhart and James Sheppard.
Barnhart is calling today for Parcel 5 to be made a temporary park while all the concerns are sorted out, saying Mayor Warren left the public out of decision making on the arts center and made her selection behind closed doors. She calls it a “secret RFP for public land.”
Sheppard says the mayor disregarded the city’s request for proposals process and selected the project for Parcel 5 herself without public input. He, too says many questions have gone unanswered.
Warren says the $130 million arts center-residential development has numerous benefits including job creation and a more vibrant city.