East Main Street and South Clinton Avenue (Clinton Square)
Rochester, New York
Plans for the nation's first center city shopping mall got underway in late 1956. Gilbert and Gordon McCurdy and Maurice and Fred Forman, four Rochester retail moguls, met with architect Victor Gruen to discuss a concept to save their downtown department stores from the ravages of suburbanization.
Gruen's proposal was submitted to the McCurdys and Formans in September 1958 and was enthusiastically received. Plans for a "multi-functional" downtown civic center and retail complex were officially announced on September 25, 1958. Ground was broken on April 6, 1959.
MIDTOWN PLAZA was built under the auspices of the Midtown Holdings Company, which was under the control of McCurdy & Company ("McCurdy's") and the B. Forman Company. The 35 million dollar complex occupied an 8.6-acre site in Rochester's downtown core, which had previously been city blocks bisected by Cortland Street.
Existing buildings were worked into the project, such as the McCurdy's and B. Forman stores. A new headquarters was also built for the Rochester Telephone Corporation. An ultra-modern merchandising mecca was dedicated on April 10, 1962, with over 5,000 Rochesterians on hand for the festivities. A ceremonial ribbon was cut by Mayor Henry Gillette and former mayor Peter Barry.
MIDTOWN PLAZA consisted of a 3-level, subterranean parking garage and 2-level, fully-enclosed shopping mall. These were topped off by an 18-floor office tower, with its 4 upper levels comprising the (78-room) Midtown Tower Hotel. The ground floor of the building included a multi-modal bus terminal. Anchoring the complex were the 6-level (487,000 square foot) McCurdys and 4-level (179,000 square foot) B. Forman.
Among the mall's fifty charter tenants were Casual Corner, Malcrest Shoes, Scrantom's Books & Stationery, Lane Bryant, No Waiting Barber Shop, Lincoln Rochester Trust Company and a Wegman's supermarket. There was also a 300-seat Community Auditorium.
The centerpiece of the facility was its Clock of Nations, which presented animated puppet shows of twelve cultures. These were from Ireland, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Japan, Thailand, Poland, Italy, Canada, Germany, Isreal, Nigeria and the United States.
MIDTOWN PLAZA garnered much media coverage and served as a model for subsequent urban renewal projects across the United States. Renovations were completed in the 1970s and '80s, with the PLAZA being incorporated into the city's Skyway, an enclosed network of overhead pedestrian passageways. The Continental Sidewalk Cafe was converted to a standard mall Food Court in 1983. By this time, the shopping complex housed over 100 stores and services.
Unfortunately, the shift of downtown commerce to the suburbs, which MIDTOWN PLAZA had been created to curtail, had continued unabated. The B. Forman MIDTOWN store was shuttered in August 1994, with McCurdy's going dark in the following September. B. Forman was resurrected on November 25, 1994, but closed for good in January 1996. Virginia-based Peebles leased the the first floor of the former Forman's, with the remainder of the building, and the entirety of the old McCurdy's, being renovated into office spaces.
MIDTOWN PLAZA languished for the remainder of the 1990s. A California concern known as Arnold Industries acquired the struggling complex in November 1997. Their plans for a revitalization of the decaying facility were abandoned when the company declared bankruptcy in the year 2000. A subsequent plan, put forward by the Province of Palermo, Italy, would have reconfigured part of the moribund mall as an "Italian shopping experience." This project was also abandoned.
By 2006, redevelopment plans for the "hulking mess" centered around a partial demolition of the structure. The mall was shuttered on July 29, 2008, with its final tenant, the Adirondack Transit Bus Lines station, going dark on November 3, 2009.
The first phase of demolition, consisting of asbestos abatement, had commenced in July 2009. Demolition began, in earnest, on September 27, 2010. Three structures were spared; the Midtown Tower, Seneca Building and subterranean parking garage. The two buildings were renovated. Midtown Tower was rebuilt between 2014 and 2016. It reemerged as Tower 280 at Midtown, a residential, office and retail complex.
Originally, the Paetec Holding Corporation, a Rochester-based telecommunications company, was going to redevelop a portion of the former mall site with a 40-story corporate headquarters. The Great Recession prompted Paetec to drastically scale down their building plan. Eventually, they would be acquired by Arkansas' Windstream Communications. A Rochester office was installed in a downsized and renovated Seneca Building, which re-opened in September 2013.
A new headquarters for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle was built adjacent to the renovated Seneca Building. This facility was completed in May 2016. In the interim, Cortland and Elm Streets were extended through the bulk of the site. Future plans call for the new Golisano Center for the Performing Arts, and a 150-unit residential tower; these to be built on the remainder of the old MIDTOWN PLAZA parcel.
Sources:
The Rochester Beacon
MIDTOWN PLAZA consisted of a 3-level, subterranean parking garage and 2-level, fully-enclosed shopping mall. These were topped off by an 18-floor office tower, with its 4 upper levels comprising the (78-room) Midtown Tower Hotel. The ground floor of the building included a multi-modal bus terminal. Anchoring the complex were the 6-level (487,000 square foot) McCurdys and 4-level (179,000 square foot) B. Forman.
Among the mall's fifty charter tenants were Casual Corner, Malcrest Shoes, Scrantom's Books & Stationery, Lane Bryant, No Waiting Barber Shop, Lincoln Rochester Trust Company and a Wegman's supermarket. There was also a 300-seat Community Auditorium.
The centerpiece of the facility was its Clock of Nations, which presented animated puppet shows of twelve cultures. These were from Ireland, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Japan, Thailand, Poland, Italy, Canada, Germany, Isreal, Nigeria and the United States.
MIDTOWN PLAZA garnered much media coverage and served as a model for subsequent urban renewal projects across the United States. Renovations were completed in the 1970s and '80s, with the PLAZA being incorporated into the city's Skyway, an enclosed network of overhead pedestrian passageways. The Continental Sidewalk Cafe was converted to a standard mall Food Court in 1983. By this time, the shopping complex housed over 100 stores and services.
Unfortunately, the shift of downtown commerce to the suburbs, which MIDTOWN PLAZA had been created to curtail, had continued unabated. The B. Forman MIDTOWN store was shuttered in August 1994, with McCurdy's going dark in the following September. B. Forman was resurrected on November 25, 1994, but closed for good in January 1996. Virginia-based Peebles leased the the first floor of the former Forman's, with the remainder of the building, and the entirety of the old McCurdy's, being renovated into office spaces.
MIDTOWN PLAZA languished for the remainder of the 1990s. A California concern known as Arnold Industries acquired the struggling complex in November 1997. Their plans for a revitalization of the decaying facility were abandoned when the company declared bankruptcy in the year 2000. A subsequent plan, put forward by the Province of Palermo, Italy, would have reconfigured part of the moribund mall as an "Italian shopping experience." This project was also abandoned.
By 2006, redevelopment plans for the "hulking mess" centered around a partial demolition of the structure. The mall was shuttered on July 29, 2008, with its final tenant, the Adirondack Transit Bus Lines station, going dark on November 3, 2009.
The first phase of demolition, consisting of asbestos abatement, had commenced in July 2009. Demolition began, in earnest, on September 27, 2010. Three structures were spared; the Midtown Tower, Seneca Building and subterranean parking garage. The two buildings were renovated. Midtown Tower was rebuilt between 2014 and 2016. It reemerged as Tower 280 at Midtown, a residential, office and retail complex.
Originally, the Paetec Holding Corporation, a Rochester-based telecommunications company, was going to redevelop a portion of the former mall site with a 40-story corporate headquarters. The Great Recession prompted Paetec to drastically scale down their building plan. Eventually, they would be acquired by Arkansas' Windstream Communications. A Rochester office was installed in a downsized and renovated Seneca Building, which re-opened in September 2013.
A new headquarters for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle was built adjacent to the renovated Seneca Building. This facility was completed in May 2016. In the interim, Cortland and Elm Streets were extended through the bulk of the site. Future plans call for the new Golisano Center for the Performing Arts, and a 150-unit residential tower; these to be built on the remainder of the old MIDTOWN PLAZA parcel.
Sources:
The Rochester Beacon
The Democrat & Chronicle (Rochester, New York)
https://rbj.net/1997 / "Downtown Office Buildings" / Rochester Business Journal
https://www.monorails.org
https://nyrej.com / New York Real Estate Journal
https://www.midtownrochester.com ((website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
https://www.cityofrochester.gov
https://www.rochesterhistory.org
https://rbj.net/1997 / "Downtown Office Buildings" / Rochester Business Journal
https://www.monorails.org
https://nyrej.com / New York Real Estate Journal
https://www.midtownrochester.com ((website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
https://www.cityofrochester.gov
https://www.rochesterhistory.org
"Midtown Plaza (Rochester)" article on Wikipedia
