News Release - Exciting New ROC the Riverway Project to Include PAC
City of Rochester
News Release
(Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018) — Mayor Lovely A. Warren announced a new job-creating project as part of ROC the Riverway that will incorporate the proposed Performing Arts Center (PAC) within an entertainment and hotel redevelopment at the site currently occupied by the Riverside Hotel on Main Street Downtown – the Golisano Entertainment Complex at Riverside Place.
“ROC the Riverway has shown us that successful, job-creating redevelopment Downtown must include opening our riverfront,” said Mayor Warren. “With the vision and investment of people like Dave Christa, Tom Golisano and others we now have the ability to move forward with a dynamic project to bring people to the heart of Downtown and reinvent an important riverside gateway to our city all while improving critical, job-building tourism and convention traffic. The private sector redevelopment of the Riverside Hotel, when partnered with government investment is an incredible opportunity to move our city forward and create jobs.”
The new project includes two theaters, hotel, retail, convention, restaurant and residential development, including a parking structure and public greenspace with river access, all at this prominent Downtown site. The Midtown site at Parcel 5 will no longer be considered for the PAC.
The project’s team will be comprised of Christa Development and Rochester Broadway Theatre League (RBTL) with other partners including the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center. Together they will seek to engage the public, funders, the arts community and other important community stakeholders in the process moving forward.
Earlier this year, Mayor Warren submitted legislation to City Council to commission one of the nation’s preeminent performing arts consulting firms to evaluate the impact of a new PAC Downtown on other local arts organizations. Based on case studies of other cities where new PACs were built, that study concluded that a new PAC in Rochester would be a benefit to existing entities.
The equivalent of 810 full-time construction jobs are envisioned for the estimated $250 million project, along with an additional 238 new, permanent, full-time jobs and 271 part-time jobs once the project is completed. Additionally, the economic impact of two new theaters and other added entertainment space will be significantly larger than RBTL’s shows currently create with the potential for more shows and additional ticket sales from a larger theater and programming.
RBTL estimates their new, approximately 3,000 seat theater at the new Golisano Arts & Entertainment Complex alone would book a minimum of 180 “use nights” in a given year, which would bring more than 360,000 people Downtown annually with a projected $18.5 million in ticket sales for an overall economic impact of $55.5 million.*
In the coming months, the City of Rochester will engage Downtown residents, city residents at-large and other stakeholders to collaboratively determine a path forward for redevelopment of Parcel 5 at Midtown.
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News Media: For more information, contact Press Officer Jessica Alaimo at 428-7135.
*To put this into perspective, a two-week RBTL show from last season had attendance of 40,000 people and ticket sales of $2.8 million. The economic impact from this two week performance was $8.4 million (which is generally calculated for Broadway shows using a multiplier of three versus ticket sales). As part of that impact, the cast purchased 840 room nights in local hotels, rented 20-30 cars and an untold number of food and beverage purchases from local restaurants, among other miscellaneous expenditures. Additionally, 105 stage hands were employed on the show along with 20 wardrobe people and 10 musicians. Add to this the dollars spent by theater goers on dinners and other things.