<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2BsvHY_1D5DuvRd00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2BsvHY_1D5DuvRd00" width="1140" height="855" ><figcaption>The Ivy, at 325 College Ave., sits on one of the busiest corners in the City of Ithaca. Credit: Brian Crandall / The Ithaca Voice</figcaption></figure>ITHACA, N.Y. – For years, the City of Ithaca’s Collegetown neighborhood has had at least a few construction sites running, and this summer is no exception. Unlike many parts of Tompkins County where there’s been a lull in new residential projects, Collegetown benefits from being at Cornell’s doorstep, which creates a captive market of student renters for developers to compete for. A trio of midrise apartment buildings are currently under construction in the neighborhood, including <a href="https://www.thesummitithaca.com/">The Summit at 201 Oak Avenue</a>.Developed by Charlie O’Connor of Modern Living Rentals, The Summit replaces an 11-bedroom apartment house with a new 43,725-square-foot multifamily building containing 46 units with about 88 bedrooms. The new building, approved by the city planning board last year, has four floors above the grade plane, a habitable basement and porches or stoops on both street-facing facades.As expected for a new apartment building so close to Cornell, rents are steep. <a href="https://www.trulia.com/building/the-summit-at-201-oak-avenue-201-oak-ave-ithaca-ny-14850-2767136949">Rents</a> for studios and one-bedroom units start at $2,700 a month, and four-bedroom units are a lofty $7,200 a month. Yet, with the apartment building opening for tenants in August, <a href="https://www.thesummitithaca.com/availability">nearly all of the units have been rented</a>, according to a post on the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thesummitithaca/profilecard/?igsh=ZzR5YXdyNmkxMDJt">building’s Instagram page</a>.For that premium price, tenants get a host of apartment and building amenities. Apartments include LED fireplaces, Smart TVs, high-speed internet, quartz countertops, in-unit washers and dryers and “spa-style bathrooms.” The building includes a fitness center, gaming lounge, a sauna, private study pods and an “entertainment kitchen” for large group cooking parties. Construction is largely complete from the outside. Some ground-level windows and doors still need to be installed, and landscaping is being completed. Interior finish work is ongoing.Just a couple of blocks away from The Summit, The Ivy sits on one of the most prominent corners of Ithaca, in the heart of Collegetown. The site <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Cornell/comments/12lebu5/collegetown_1985/">housed a bland one-story brick convenience store</a> and bank branch from the early 1980s until it was torn down and used for a construction staging area by the previous owner. <a href="https://ithacavoice.org/2014/07/manhattanization-collegetown-continues-looking-proposed-ithaca-building/">John Novarr and Phil Proujansky had plans to pursue housing on the property</a>, but their project never moved forward. Novarr passed away, and the property was sold to businessmen Nick Robertson and Charlie O’Connor, who partnered together to redevelop the property and the one-story building that housed the Koko Korean restaurant next door.The new 37,551-square-foot building will have 52 residential units with a total of 81 beds in configurations ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments. The plans also include a 1,500-square-foot commercial space (to be occupied by Koko at a below-market rent), a lobby, a small private fitness center and a roof terrace.During the planning board review, the developers stressed that they were happy to rent the ground level retail at a lower price point because it was more important to have a tenant there than to make a big profit on the space.As many Collegetown landlords will say, the profit is in the housing and not the commercial space, which struggles with the extreme seasonality of college students and the academic year. In the case of The Ivy, studios start at $2,595 a month and three-bedroom units rent for up to $4,900 a month. As is often seen with these high-end student apartment projects, the building will offer amenities like a wellness center, media lounge, private study rooms and a 24-hour coffee bar. The building is racing its way to an August 2026 opening. The blue material is <a href="https://www.henry.com/residential/products/housewrap-and-wrb/self-adhered-wrb/blueskin-vp100/">polyethylene Blueskin</a>, a water-resistant barrier applied to the top of wood panels like those often used in residential construction. The underside of the second floor uses fireproof gypsum paneling. The exterior is faced in a combination of white <a href="https://ceraclad.com/">Ceraclad fiber cement</a> and dark grey aluminum panels. The lowest levels will be faced with a dark grey brick veneer, which has proven to be the fashionable choice among architects for about a decade now. The corner windows will be fitted in the next few weeks.The Washington, D.C. office of <a href="https://bkvgroup.com/team/jack-boarman/">BKV Group</a> designed the building. Robertson is a real estate developer and also <a href="https://robertsondevelop.com/the-ivy/">runs his own construction firm</a>, which led the buildout of the project in a tight 14-month timeframe. The Bear at 215 College Ave. is the second of Robertson and O’Connor’s joint development projects, replacing a two-and-a-half story apartment house previously on the site. Seven stories at the front and three at the rear, the approximately 64,000-square-foot building will contain 84 units and 150 beds.As it’s the sister property to the Ivy, they share the same architect and the same architectural themes, a combination of light fiber cement panels and dark aluminum metal panels. Units range from <a href="https://www.thebearithaca.com/ithaca/the-bear/student/">$2,850 a month studios to $6,000 a month</a> for three-bedroom units. The property is amenity-rich: ​multiple study areas, a package room, game room, a rooftop terrace with a grill and outdoor games, and a “speakeasy-style” lounge. Units come fully furnished and host stainless steel appliances, smart TVs and the usual high-end finishes – vinyl plank flooring, LED lighting and the like.The photos show the excavated foundation area, the foundation walls and basement-level concrete wall pours with reinforcing rebar. The crane marks where the front stairwell will be, next to the elevator core. A rear stairwell will be located on the southeast side of the building footprint. One can see the front (west) concrete walls curing between the wood forms on either side, with wood lagging holding back College Avenue while crews wait to add soil backfill between teh foundation wall and lagging at a later time. As foundations need to be a careful work, they focus on short stretches at a time, until the footprint is fully enclosed. Once that happens, they can then grade the enclosed area, lay down structural support rebar, and pour the base slab. The Bear will actually have a sunken ground-level plaza with a short bridge from street to entrance, so there will be a downsloped greenspace from street to building when it’s completed.What’s in a name? Good question. The Pinnacle Apartments, previously known as The Breeze, are nearing completion at the former site of the Ithaca Gun factory. Local developer Todd Fox’s Visum Development Group received approval for the project in February 2023, with revisions approved in 2025. The 77-unit, 109-bed market-rate apartment building is a mix of studios, one- and two-bedroom units and includes 77 parking spaces.Before site development could occur, Visum was required to remediate the site because of industrial pollution left over from the old Ithaca Gun factory. A remedial investigation was completed at the site and submitted to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in April 2021, and site plan approval was granted in February 2023.Online listings show the two-bedroom units <a href="https://www.apartments.com/the-pinnacle-ithaca-ny/te7yv6c/">going for about $3,000 a month</a>, which is substantially cheaper than the two-bedrooms in the new Collegetown buildings. The units are pet-friendly and come with in-unit washers and dryers, high-end kitchen finishes and private balconies. Building amenities include a business lounge, rooftop terrace, gym, covered parking and a private waterfall overlook. A public overlook was built as part of the site plan approval from The City of Ithaca. Given that Gun Hill is a little less desirable to students, the project is designed to appeal to the broader premium rental market, such as young Cornell faculty and staff. The building is essentially complete. The landscaping and paving is being wrapped up, while there’s already furniture in the building lobby. Tenants will be allowed to begin moving in shortly, according to Visum’s website.DGA Builders, a Rochester-area firm that has been building a presence in Tompkins County in recent years, is the general contractor for the project. DGA previously worked with Visum on their 126 College Ave. infill project in Collegetown. SWBR Architects of Rochester designed the new building.In the short term, it’s looking fairly quiet for new projects. The Ruby, planned by Visum Development for 228 Dryden Road, is seeking reapprovals for its 35-unit-development, and may get underway if the financial stars align. Meanwhile, a project adjacent to Gun Hill, <a href="https://ithacavoice.org/tag/lake-street-townhouses/">the 16-unit Lake Street Townhomes</a>, remains stalled, and the property was sold to another downstate developer this past spring. Brian Crandall reports on housing and development for the Ithaca Voice. He can be reached at bcrandall@ithacavoice.org. <a href="https://ithacavoice.org/author/brian-crandall/">More by Brian Crandall</a> The Ithaca Voice’s nonprofit newsroom is committed to serving democracy for our readers with in-depth local reporting and resources to keep our community safe, informed, and better able to engage in civic life.The Ithaca Voice is a 501c3 nonprofit news organization. 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ITHACA, N.Y. – For years, the City of Ithaca’s Collegetown neighborhood has had at least a few construction sites running, and this summer is no exception. Unlike many parts of Tompkins County where there’s been a lull in new residential projects, Collegetown benefits from being at Cornell’s doorstep, which creates a captive market of student renters for developers to compete for.

Gallery: See what’s under construction around Ithaca this summer

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The Ithaca Voice

ITHACA, N.Y. – For years, the City of Ithaca’s Collegetown neighborhood has had at least a few construction sites running, and this summer is no exception.

Gallery: See what’s under construction around Ithaca this summer

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