This morning the T-Street Development team publicly presented the latest plans for Rock Harbor Commons to the city's Planning Board. The plans for Phase 1 of Rock Harbor Student Village were well received and T-Street members contributed the smooth process to pre-scoping meetings conducted by the Planning Department, which were parlayed to the board. That meant that it was only a matter of discussing final details this morning - the enthusiastic board wrapped up the meeting with final words such as 'wonderful' and 'amazing'. With project approval being granted by the board, it is now only a matter of County and Common Council signing on. Today was a huge step towards seeing the Rock Harbor project underway.
The plans for the site call for a conversion and renovation of an existing building located at 31 Tonawanda Street. It is anticipated that there will be 285 college and university students living in a 285-bed, 140 unit complex within the former Fedco building (150,000 sq.' footprint). Intentions are to design a green living environment using everything from gray water collection systems to a shuttle that burns used grease from the local Jim's SteakOut locations. Already, one of the warehouses is being heated with Jim's grease and a company truck is kept operational by using the same earth-friendly process.
The ultimate plan is to renovate the existing industrial building by removing the metal siding and refurbishing the original brickwork. Towers and obelisks will be incorporated into the design to give an enhanced and new look to the change of use building. The student community will ultimately boast a large first floor recreation area, a café, secured parking, access to bike trail and creek, sculptures, and green spaces. And if Buffalo State College proceeds to move forward with a potential plan to purchase a neighboring city car impound, the Rock Harbor grounds might eventually be located approximately 50' from the college border. Not to say that Buffalo State would be the only student population attracted to Rock Harbor - the idea is to make the student village open to anyone attending college or university in the area. Units will be available for both rent and purchase.
Eventually there is a dream to incorporate an educational component to the mix. There are preliminary talks to design an environmentally geared educational live/work/play atmosphere where students can learn about what it takes to enter into green fields. The social entrepreneurial facet is intended to keep students on top if the environmental game while focusing on retaining them in Western New York beyond their college years. Ideally, these programs would be interwoven with existing collegiate programs.
Overall, Rock Harbor is shaping up to be a different type of vision. Today that vision entered the gates. Hopefully soon the project will be up and running.
*The schematic shows a wooden sectional fence... that fence will, of course, be made of steel.