After over a decade in the making, Asteri Ithaca opened its doors Tuesday afternoon to a lot of promise for budding businesses and those struggling to find a home in the city, as well as plenty of fanfare from state officials.
The $96 Million all-electric development at 166 – 118 East Green Street includes 181 housing units - 40 with on-site support services for people struggling with homelessness – and the Ithaca Downtown Conference Center, poised to help fuel the city’s continued economic growth with bookable function space including an executive board room, grand ballroom, breakout rooms, pre-function space, and a full production kitchen.
The 12-story building is split, with the conference center and other community spaces occupying the first three floors, and the other nine dedicated to housing, developed by the Vecino Group.
According to the groups project website for Asteri Ithaca, total square footage of the site reaches just under 200,000- square-feet, and the total development cost reached over $108 million.
“This unique partnership brings affordable housing to the heart of our community, highlighting our City's deep commitment to equity and inclusion,” Ithaca Mayor Robert Cantelmo said Tuesday during a ribbon-cutting event at Asteri Ithaca. “This project is anchored by North America's first all-electric conference center, a testament to this community's investment in a green, sustainable, and welcoming future.”
A look inside
Residents will have free 5G internet service, a 12th-floor sky terrace, outdoor space, a fitness center and a community room to take advantage of. There is a laundry room on each floor and indoor bike storage on the ground floor.
The eastern portion of the Green Street Parking Garage has been renovated and expanded to include 350 parking spaces, with spots available for building residents to lease.
Asteri’s supportive apartments benefit from an Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative award to Tompkins Community Action , Inc., (TCA) which will be administered by the State's Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, allowing TCA to provide support services designed to promote self-sufficiency in areas such as life skills, financial literacy, job preparation and skill building, and family reunification.
Conference center
The Ithaca Downtown Conference Center is expected to host over 50,000 attendees, and spur $50 million in new visitor spending and millions in state and local taxes over the next twenty years according to a Tuesday statement from Governor Kathy Hochul’s office.
Annually, the Conference Center anticipates generating 6,500 additional visitors.
“Tompkins County has invested in this project by directing some of its hotel tax revenue as an ongoing funding source,” Tompkins County Legislative Chairman Dan Klein said at the opening. “This project provides housing and jobs in downtown Ithaca and will attract many visitors to Tompkins County.”
The project is expected to provide economic benefit to the greater Tompkins County area, attracting visitors during the slower months and during off-peak days of Sunday through Thursday.
Asteri Ithaca and the Ithaca Downtown Conference Center are within walking distance of the Ithaca Commons, city hall, restaurants, shops, medical offices, and professional offices. The development is close to Six-Mile Creek Trail, DeWitt Park and Cascadilla Gorge Trail. The Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit's Ithaca Commons - Green Street stop is nearby and is served by more than 10 bus routes.
Then executive director of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, Gary Ferguson, called the development "a once-in-a-generation project that will result in a long-term community asset," in 2020. "It is the result of years of work by many collaborating entities, including the Tompkins County Tourism Program and the County’s Strategic Tourism Planning Board, the CVB, the Chamber of Commerce, the City of Ithaca, Tompkins County and the Downtown Ithaca Alliance."
Setting an example
Empire State Development is supporting the $34 million conference center project with a capital grant of up to $5 million.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand delivered $2 million in federal funding for the conference center as part of the federal omnibus funding package for FY 2022. This Community Project Funding award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development allowed the project to include a first-of-its-kind all-electric kitchen.
The City of Ithaca, Tompkins County Tourism Program , the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency, four downtown Ithaca hotels - Ithaca Marriott on the Commons, the Canopy Hotel, Hilton Garden Inn, and Hotel Ithaca - via the Tompkins Chamber Foundation, and the Downtown Ithaca Alliance provided significant financial support for the Conference Center and renovation of the remaining portion of the garage.
Asteri Ithaca complements Governor Hochul’s $25 billion five-year Housing Plan which is on track to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes statewide. More than 40,000 homes have been created or preserved through the plan to date.
Last August, Ithaca received a Pro-Housing Community designation, a requirement for localities to access up to $650 million in state discretionary funding. To date, more than 160 communities have been certified through the Pro-Housing Community program, including the City of Ithaca which was one of the first municipalities certified in the State.
In the past five years, New York State Homes and Community Renewal has created or preserved more than 1,000 affordable homes in Tompkins County.
State and federal funding for the $62 million residential portion of the Asteri Ithaca includes $11 million in permanent tax-exempt bonds, federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits that will generate $26.3 million in equity and $19.8 million in subsidy from New York State Homes and Community Renewal. New York State Energy and Research Development Authority's New Construction-Housing Program provided more than $650,000 in additional funding.
Hochul has pushed New York State to achieve 85% carbon neutrality by 2050, and Ithaca officials set community-wide energy efficiency goals in its Green New Deal, which the city adopted in the summer of 2019.
Goals of the Green New Deal include Community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030 , ensuring that benefits are shared among all local communities to reduce historical social and economic inequities , 100% renewable electricity by 2025 for government operations and reduced emissions from the city vehicle fleet by 50% by 2025
This article originally appeared on Ithaca Journal: Asteri Ithaca opens up opportunities for downtown Ithaca tourism, businesses, residents
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