How Rochester ended up making Parcel 5 a green oasis where a dying Midtown Plaza once stood

Marcia Greenwood, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Updated ·3 min read
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What is now known as Parcel 5 was for decades home to Midtown Plaza.

Proposed in 1958 and designed by Victor Gruen, a pioneer in shopping mall design, it was dedicated on April 10, 1962, as America’s first indoor urban mall and hailed nationally as a symbol of downtown revitalization. Original tenants included local department stores McCurdy’s and B. Forman. Wegmans Food Markets had a store on the first floor.

Kids would toss coins into an illuminated fountain, sometimes from an adjacent open stairway leading to the plaza's second level. Another focal point, the Clock of Nations, was added in 1963.

For generations, downtown — and especially Midtown — was the place to go at Christmastime, thanks to such seasonal attractions as the monorail, which carried small children around the shopping center in a loop, and Magic Mountain, where little ones could visit Santa Claus. (In 1985, 50,000 kids waited in line to see St. Nick, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.)

But by the early ’90s, the plaza was struggling. In 1994, McCurdy’s, the mall’s anchor, went out of business, and Forman’s closed. Wegmans followed in 1995.

In 2007, then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced the city would buy the plaza, and the state would pay to have it demolished it to make way for the headquarters of telecommunications company PAETEC, then based in Perinton.

Midtown closed in 2008, by which time it was mostly vacant, and in 2010, it was torn down. Midtown Tower, home to The Top of the Plaza restaurant, was spared (and later redeveloped by Buckingham Properties as mixed-use project Tower280).

In 2011, PAETEC was sold to Arkansas-based Windstream, which announced it wouldn’t build anything at the Midtown site, by then known as Parcel 5. Instead, it took out a 15-year lease on two floors of the reconstructed Seneca Building next to where the plaza stood and also home to the Democrat and Chronicle.

Resolving what to do with Parcel 5 followed a number of twists and turns after Lovely Warren took office as Rochester mayor 2014. Initially, she was intent on not leaving the 1-acre site vacant.

Rochesterians weigh in: Parcel 5 is a rare greenspace in downtown Rochester. Should it stay that way?

What has been proposed for Parcel 5 in downtown Rochester in the past?

  • Early on, there was a plan by the late Larry Glazer and Buckingham Properties for a movie theater and retail shops.

  • Twice, Warren entertained proposals for a performing arts center.

  • There also was talk of a casino or a slot parlor.

  • Ideas about mixed-use residential developments were considered but ultimately rejected.

As various proposals were floated, there were calls by activist groups to make Parcel 5 a public green space.

And in the absence of development, it started morphing into that, becoming a city-sanctioned site for Rochester Fringe Festival and Rochester International Jazz Festival shows and other programming.

In the spring of 2021, the city turned Parcel 5 from a gravel-covered lot into an expansive lawn with a concrete walking path, making the location “a transitional/temporary community entertainment space.”

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Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @MarciaGreenwood.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Parcel 5 in Rochester NY became a grassy plot despite other plans