Ciminelli Development is in the middle of a messing debate over development rights to a 1.4-acre City-owned parcel in Waterfront Village. A four-story, $10 million Wingate Inn proposed by Jim Pitts and Specialty Restaurants Group was chosen by the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency over a 10-story, $37 million project by Ciminelli and Hamister Group. Ciminelli’s mixed-use proposal is modeled after a similar project completed 150 miles to the east in Ithaca.
Seneca Place on the Commons is a nine-story, 185,000 sq.ft. mixed use project located at the corner of Tioga and E. Seneca steets, directly adjacent to the entrance of “The Commons,” a pedestrian mall in the heart of downtown Ithaca.
Starbucks and Kipatrick’s Irish Pub occupy on the first floor, along with the Hilton Garden Inn lobby. Floors two through five contain 93,000 sq.ft. of office space, much of it occupied by Cornell University. The university moved 300 employees into the building from its Alumni Affairs and Development Office and the Johnson School of Business. 104 hotel rooms occupy floors six through nine.
Seneca Place, designed by Fontanese Folts Aubrecht Ernst Architects, PC had a development cost of $32 million and opened in July 2005. The Hilton Garden Inn was the first new hotel constructed in downtown Ithaca in over 20 years.
The similarly scaled project proposed for Waterfront Village is 10-stories, with a 150-room Hilton Garden Inn and 60,000 sq.ft. of office space.
