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City Council Sets Sights on Midtown Tower
City Council Sets Sights on Midtown Tower
March 4, 2009
Bob Smith
WXXI
Members of Rochester City Council have now have had several days to digest a pair of proposals for rebuilding Midtown Tower and renovating the
southern half of the Midtown Plaza parcel. And one council member, who's been deeply involved with downtown redevelopment, says he likes what he sees.
Councilman Bill Pritchard says the two plans have in common, a complete reconstruction of the tower's interior to a mixed-use building combining office and retail use on the lower floors with conversion of the top 14 floors to residential use. But one proposal seeks to restore most of the 1962 exterior appearance of the tower, while another would totally re-clad it in a glass exterior wall.
Pritchard admits he personally favors the new look. "The insides will be gutted in both proposals. It's going to be the outside of the two proposals
[that's going to be] a very different look. I like to look forward, I like to look to the future, not to the past."
Pritchard says both proposals have merit, and City Council could opt either to choose one of them for development, or re-open the process to additional developers or ideas. But he says it is time to move forward on Midtown renewal as quickly as possible.
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