(Rochester, N.Y.) – Thursday is the one-year anniversary of the announcement that Midtown Plaza would be torn down and replaced by PAETEC’s world headquarters.
Pert Pointer is getting settled into her new digs on Mortimer St. near St. Paul.
“I'm sad because I'm losing a lot of my friends and customers I had in Midtown. I feel good about being here because it's a new beginning,” she said.
The city emptied out Midtown with lightning speed. One year later, Midtown is padlocked shut, with the garage and Skyway closed. Asbestos removal and demolition is slated to begin early next year.
“It's hard to believe it's been a year. The last year has flown by. But it's a shot in the arm to Rochester,” said Mayor Robert Duffy.
Despite the state’s giant deficit, the governor is standing by a pledge to deliver up to $65 million for demolition.
Despite it’s stock going into a freefall, PAETEC is standing by its pledge to relocate onto the Midtown site. Shares have fallen about 90 percent in the last year.
PAETEC, however, will not be building the high-rise that CEO Arunas Chesonis originally envisioned. Instead, it will be 9 or 10 stories.
“That's why we decided to go with the re-engineering of the project now,” Chesonis said. “We said, okay, what's the minimum size building we can get away with and still handle future growth when we move in?"
The difficult economy may mean the city will have a harder time filling up the Midtown site, as PAETEC will only take up a third of the block. So far, PAETEC is the only company on board, but Chesonis expects that to change once construction starts.
“That's when we thought people would get more excited, because a lot of times, people talk about projects that don't really follow through on them. We understand that,” Chesonis said.
The mayor isn’t worried he might have a hole in the ground where Midtown now stands that could take years to fill.
“Everything's a risk,” Duffy said. “But as Governor Paterson pointed out, the Empire State Building was built after the Crash of 1929. Even in those times, that building was built and it's still a part of the New York City skyline.”
There are still questions about the fate of the Skyway, garage, and Midtown Tower. It’s also not clear what the city envisions for the rest of the Midtown site. Those issues will likely be addressed in the draft environmental impact statement, which was supposed to be out last month. The city is still working on the document.
PAETEC Stock Slide Hurts Morale
Chesonis said the company’s stock price is hard on worker morale. Shares fell below $1 for the first time last week.
About a quarter of the stock is owned by the telecommunications firm’s management and employees.
“It can bring people down a little bit, so you have to make sure you talk about all the positives going on right now in the business, the new successes, and how solid we are financially, because the stock isn’t necessarily a reflection of how healthy the business is right now,” Chesonis said.
Chesonis said he has heard from shareholders.
"There's a lot of shareholders who lost a lot of value. People buy stock at $6, $7, and see it down to $2, they want to call you," he said.
Chesonis said his firm will weather the economic storm.
'Most people need their electricity. They need their phone service. They need their Internet service to run a business, so we'll do pretty well through this process."
