WROC │ January 28, 2024
This January, Rochester got its first look at plans for the redevelopment of the Bull’s Head neighborhood.
The project has been decades in the making, and developer Dawson Co. – and its subsidiary for the work, DevelopROC – presented plans in a public meeting in St. Mary’s in the neighborhood in mid-January.
Bull’s Head, which has seen significant divestment in the recent decades, is poised to be transformed if these plans are approved. The neighborhood generally encompasses the intersections of West Main Street, Genesee Street, Chili Avenue, West Avenue, and Brown Street.
“We are really encouraged by all of the excitement and enthusiasm as well as the amount of potential collaborators that came forward from their interest in the project,” said Melissa James-Geska, president of U.S. Ceiling Corp, one of the partners in the development in a Zoom interview.
Dennis Pemberton of Dawson Co., laid out some of the plans for the redevelopment:
- Market-rate housing
- Affordable housing
- Commercial development
- Urban farming
- Grocery store
- Green space
Pemberton said it’s targeting 800 units total. An ESL branch is also slated to come to the neighborhood as its first tenant.
“Rochester Regional Health and tying into St. Mary’s Hospital, and then some of the other partners in the area… We think this is gonna be a tremendous boost for this for this neighborhood,” Pemberton said.
James-Geska company, U.S. Ceiling Corp, is a construction company, that she says is slated to move their headquarters from Brighton to Bull’s Head, and therefore move 100 jobs to Rochester.
James-Geska and Pemberton said that much of the feedback they received was making sure that the area is open and walkable. Safety and “quality of life” updates are planned for biking and walking routes.
The team also said that any builds are designed to look like they fit in the neighborhood, and area historical building will be kept.
“We don’t want this to look like something that just dropped in from out of space,” Pemberton said with a laugh.
The next public meeting for the project is scheduled for February 27. Pemberton and James-Geska said that demolition of the main plaza is scheduled for April, with remediation to follow. They add ESL’s construction is also due to start in the spring.
DevelopROC 