Saturday, August 16, 2008

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Sign the petition opposing the hotel/office/retail complex.

If you are a Brighton resident opposed to changing zoning to allow construction of the giant hotel/office/retail complex at the corner of I-590 and Winton, you can sign our petition here.

Reserve No Longer "Gated". Will It "Block the Canal"?

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports today that Costello Development has removed the "gated" component to the proposed residential development on the Erie Canal ("the Reserve", not to be confused with the three-part hotel/retail/office complex). Kudos to them. The same article reports, however, that the development will "block the canal." It is not clear from the article what this means, and at this point I can't confirm the accuracy of the report. But it is very worrying. If true, does this refer to blocking access to the canal from certain points? I have to assume that is the case, because I don't see how the developer could legally block traffic on the canal itself (!!) or the bike path along it.

Hmm. Sloppy journalism.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Costello Projects are INDEED 725,000 plus square feet of floor space

According to an August 6 article in the Daily Record of Rochester by Eric Walter, there are three components to the proposed new Costello developments (excluding the residential Reserve). These are
1. A 120,000 sq ft. expansion of the Clinton Crossing medical development.
2. A 500,000 sq. ft. business office complex, with buildings 4-6 stories high (6-10 buildings): "Clinton Crossings Corporate Center".
3. A 108,000 sq. ft. retail/ conference center with a 5 story Embassy Suites hotel and a pond that could be used for ice skating: "Crossings Lifestyle Center".

The reporter describes one of Costello's comments as follows: "Expecting Brighton to remain the bucolic town it is today is unrealistic," Costello noted. Costello has taken it upon himself to decide what it is "realistic" and "unrealistic" for Brighton.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

An Even Closer Look at Size of Hotel/Retail/Office Development, With Corrections

A closer look at the original "scope" proposal for the Costello hotel/retail/office development, which the developer now refers to as "Clinton Crossings", indicates that I was in error to refer to 1,000,000 square feet of floor space. Total floor space looks to be about 280,000 square feet, conservatively. The buildings' footprints total approximately 180,000 square feet. The "more than" 1,000,000 square feet figure, which I was given, refers to the total area to be developed, including parking.

So back to the comparisons with other developments. Parking for "Clinton Crossings" is given as just over 3,400 spaces (I believe 3,420). Parking at Marketplace Mall is 5,500 and at Pittsford Plaza it is 2,250. Marketplace Mall building floor area and footprint too ( I believe) is just under 1,000,000 square feet. Pittsford Plaza has about 500,000 square feet of building floor area.