Commercial/residential mixed use building on Route 20 latest proposal
The second phase of the Cazenovia Market project is currently in the works, with a three-story mixed use residential/commercial building now making its way through the village planning and approvals process. The building will be on Route 20, just east of the new Aldi grocery store.
The proposed project was part of the original Cazenovia Market approvals in April 2017, although at that time is was a one-story commercial building. In November of last year, New Venture Assets, the project developer, amended the proposed site plan to add two additional floors to the building, both with residential apartments, as well as a community room for the residents as the middle component of a three-component first floor. The other two first floor units will be commercial.
New Venture also amended the site plan for its proposed senior living apartments in the back of the Cazenovia Market location, adding a third floor to the original four, two-story buildings.
“It’s more economics,” said New Venture owner David C. Muraco on why he amended the plans. “These modifications will have a minimum affect on the overall site plan that was previously approved. … All we’re doing is going up a floor on the apartments in the back. The front was originally just a one-story building and now we’re going three stories. Again, it’s less than a 2 percent effect on the whole site as far as the building footprint.”
The mixed use building at the front of the lot will be named the “Theophilus” building — after Cazenovia’s founder, Theophilus de Cazenove — and have two retail units and a community room for residential residents on the first floor and 12 residential units on the additional two floors being added to the plans.
The project includes room for 69 parking spaces — 48 to be constructed immediately and 21 to be “banked” for future use as needed, Muraco said.
The Theophilus building apartments will be geared toward residents ages 55 and older, not only in price but also with the community room on the first floor, Muraco said. The building will also have an elevator to access the top two floors and will be “100 percent handicapped accessible,” he said.
The building design will be based off the McLaughlin Building on Albany Street, which Muraco also owns, but will look different, Muraco said. “The building’s beautiful … it will be three-sided with glass, bigger, newer, with lot of nice detail in it – we spent lot of time on the detail,” he said.
The residential apartments at the back of the Cazenovia Market location include four buildings, three stories each, for a total 48 dwelling units. There will also be 72 parking spaces for tenants.
Muraco said he hopes to begin construction on the Theophilus building this spring, with completion within five months, and then do the back apartments after that.
Muraco and New Venture already have appeared twice before the village planning board on the amended site plan for his projects. There is also a public hearing on the proposal scheduled for the planning board’s next meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 8, in the village board room in the municipal building, 90 Albany St.
