There are plans to renovate the Cadillac Hotel in Rochester. City officials say the 90 year old building could become part of a downtown renaissance.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren is asking City Council to give its backing for using a half-million dollars in state money for the project. A private developer, who has not been named yet, is proposing a nearly $8 million project to turn that building on Chestnut Street into apartments.
The city's Deputy Commissioner of Neighborhood and Business Development, Kate Washington, says more than 50 apartments would be developed.
"Some of them would be studio apartments, some of them would be one bedroom apartments and then there would also be a retail/ restaurant entity, probably in the lower level."
Washington says among the likely renters for those apartments, students at the Eastman School of Music. The developer of the property has spoken with officials from the Eastman School about the project. Washington says this project would just add to the other development already planned for that area.
"Having a redevelopment of the Cadillac Hotel would certainly eliminate a building that really is in sore need of repair so I think it would really bring up the entire block and it would transform that entire area"
In recent years the Cadillac Hotel has been used to house people without a place to live on an emergency basis. Officials say that number has been relatively small in recent months. A Monroe County spokesperson says that over the last year, the county has significantly reduced the number of people placed at the hotel. 186 were placed there in the first six months of this year compared to 460 for the same time last year. He says if the development proposal moves forward, the county will work with each client to place them in another shelter or facility.
City Council is expected to take up the legislation next week.
