How will Ithaca look once construction season begins again? Two projects will make impact

Wondering what's going on the Cayuga waterfront, or at the formerly abandoned factory on south hill?

Here are some planned and ongoing projects in Ithaca, slated to continue into (or beyond) 2024.

“Water’s Edge”

The proposed Water’s Edge project aims to create 450 – 500 residential units in and alongside a mixed commercial retail space spread across the site’s four proposed buildings on a site seated just off Ithaca’s Route 13 corridor and adjacent to the Ithaca Farmers Market.

A December report from Arnot Realty, and project architect Erik Reynolds at a Planning and Development meeting included a 122-page document, outlining plans for the site.

Arnot Realty, based in Horseheads, won an auction for the 8-acre site — formerly a storage facility used by the state Department of Transportation — in 2021, with a nearly $3.8 million bid.

The two smaller buildings proposed for the site would be used purely to house people, while the two larger five-story buildings will be comprised largely of commercial space, according to site plans.

Early plans for the site were presented to Ithaca’s Planning Board in September. The board seemed to approve of the project’s design and proposed public amenities, including over 1.5 acres of green space, 420 parking spaces, 150 bicycle spaces, charging stations for electric vehicles, and the possibility of a TCAT bus stop adjacent to the site.

The project would connect to the Cayuga Waterfront trail, but rather than simply leaving the trail as is, site plans indicate new landscaping and rest areas where the trail intersects with the site.

Phase one of the project is estimated to cost $64 million and begin in October 2024. The first phase is estimated to be complete by June 2026, with phase two slated to be under construction from 2025 to 2027.

Chain Works District Redevelopment Project

The Chain Works District Redevelopment Project is another large-scale project under development in Ithaca.

The project, dubbed “Southworks,” aims to redevelop the former Morse Chain and Emerson Power Transmission facility on the city’s South Hill, a nearly 900,000 square-foot site on a 95-acre parcel.

Plans for the site aim to turn what once was a factory into residential, commercial, office, manufacturing, and natural areas in four phases.

First, the city plans to redevelop the four existing buildings on the site, then, in phase two, repurpose the remaining smaller structures dotted around the site. Phase three would develop the remainder of the site adjacent to existing buildings and parking lots, and lastly, phase four would develop the rest of the site.

More than 900 residential units are slated for the property, alongside commercial office space, retail units and manufacturing space.

The project's approval has been in the works for about a decade, but SHIFT Capital – a Philadelphia-based developer – has been leading the project since late last year.

Development plans for the project were approved in 2018, but there’s one sticking point: Areas of soil at the site are contaminated with hazardous compounds used in chain manufacturing there decades ago, requiring a clean-up of the site before it can be developed.

In 1994, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation classified the site as a Class 4 site, prompting the continuation of pollutant monitoring and groundwater and soil contamination mitigation measures.

The department has been working with Emerson Power Transmission and the project’s previous developer, David Lubin of L Enterprises in recent years to investigate and clean up on-site contamination.

A site management plan was approved in October 2022 to remediate the site for residential use, meaning that it is planned to be cleaned to allow for safe levels of exposure for those who would be living there site 24/7 upon its completion.

Work began this year on phase one of the project, so this will be one to watch, likely for years to come, as Ithaca officials have not publicly released a timeline for the project or estimated completion date.

For more information on development in the city of Ithaca, visit the city website, linked here.

This article originally appeared on Ithaca Journal: Ithaca 2024 projects: Water's Edge, Chain Works District Redevelopment