South & Hickory Place is scheduled for completion in early summer 2010.

Historically Appropriate: the design of the 40,000 sq. ft. multi-use residential and retail building will complement existing neighborhood buildings. The new four story brick façade will resemble five brownstones replicated from our City’s past, with retail/restaurant space occupying the first floor and floors two through four housing 33 apartments
Konar Properties, a family-owned Real Estate Development Company, has built their real estate portfolio by purchasing existing buildings, renovating historic structures, and developing new properties from the ground up. Konar’s flagship residential projects in the Greater Rochester area are Erie Station Village www.eriestation.net  in West Henrietta and Elmwood Manor www.elmwoodmanorapts.com in the town of Brighton. Their commercial portfolio includes the multi-use 185 acre plus Erie Station Business Park www.eriestation.com  as well as many other properties throughout our area.

History: Konar Properties involvement in the South Wedge began with a 2003 tour of the area conducted by members of the South Wedge Planning Committee (SWPC).  SWPC members solicited our interest in this site after watching the construction of our new Elmwood Manor townhouses along Highland Avenue.  Their purpose was to prevent development of the site as conventional drive-through buildings surrounded by parking lots.  Instead, they promoted the addition of new residential units to the area, the creation of a solid façade along South Avenue, and construction of a rear parking courtyard accessible from the side streets.

Our initial site and marketing research led us to the conclusion that a mixed use building is the best use for this parcel.  Through a separately incorporated affiliate, Gregory Street Transfer, LLC, we subsequently acquired seven separate parcels to assemble the site.  The last property we acquired, the Abeles Building, is at the corner of South Avenue and Gregory Street. We believe construction of our mixed use building on this site will contribute to the growth of this neighborhood in several ways.

 • First, it will add 33 new market rate residential apartments to the neighborhood helping to meet the demand for additional housing generated by the University of Rochester and the Medical Center.
 
• Second, it will link retail stores in our building to existing retail uses in the Abeles Building to the south and in the building owned by Dick Poole to the north.  The addition of new neighborhood convenience retail, specially targeted to the needs of area residents, will support further growth of the South Wedge area as an urban village.

• Third, the parking courtyard created behind our new building will add badly needed parking spaces for neighborhood use.  We anticipate that many of these spaces will be used by customers of our retail tenants during the day.  At night, however, the spaces will be available free of charge for customers of area restaurants, nightclubs, and other businesses.

• Fourth, as hoped by the SWPC Board members who proactively marketed this parcel, the project will restore a traditional neighborhood aesthetic to this portion of South Avenue and help maintain the momentum of new development.

• Fifth, the project will lead indirectly to the creation of new jobs in the retail locations.

• Finally, the project will provide temporary employment for the contractors and trade people who work on the construction.

floorplan AVI