Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren says the Riverside Hotel site in downtown Rochester will be the site of a downtown performing arts center, not Parcel 5. The aging Riverside Hotel will be demolished to make way for the project.
Mayor Warren spoke in a news conference this morning, saying the Riverside Hotel will be demolished, giving a bigger site than parcel 5, which can also tie into the Roc the Riverway development along the Genesee. Warren says we can now get behind a dynamic project that will bring people downtown, plus boost the arts, business and tourism downtown. The theater will seat 3,000 people and the entire project will cost an estimated $250 million.
Christa Development, the Rochester Broadway Theater League and the Floreano Riverside Convention Center will be the new partners developing the project. Warren says it will offer more public green space and bring more retail space to downtown. She says it will also become the center of Roc the Riverway and put downtown’s face to the river instead of its back.
Warren says the arts center has always been about jobs, and the project will bring more than 800 construction jobs and hundreds of full and part-time jobs when the arts center opens.
Dave Christa of Christa Construction says this will be a spectacular development with the theater, a hotel and commercial space.
Arnie Rothschild of the Rochester Broadway Theater League says this is an amazing opportunity for Rochester. He says they’ll continue to use the Auditorium Theater on Main Street for smaller shows and educational programs. Rothschild says the Riverside site wasn’t considered until now because it wasn’t available.