Sarah Taddeo, and David Riley

Democrat and Chronicle

Almost as soon as the final notes of Trombone Shorty's Jazz Festival show had finished echoing around the former Midtown Plaza site on Saturday night, social media erupted with ideas about turning the central downtown site into a permanent public space.

The spot on East Main Street was once home to an indoor mall. While it's surrounded by high-profile development projects, the center of the property, known as Parcel 5, is little more than a vacant gravel lot today.

That lot became electrified when Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival producers held one of the festival's final concerts there after the East Avenue and Alexander Street stage disappeared this year.

The show brought a massive crowd into the heart of the city.

“What happened on Saturday night was unbelievable,” said Heidi Zimmer-Meyer, president of the Rochester Downtown Development Corp. “Being in the setting where you’ve got tall buildings surrounding you, that’s part of what blew (the audience) away.”

The crowd stood on a site whose future is already the subject of fierce debate.

The city of Rochester has aired ideas from two different developers about building a performing arts center and/or a Seneca-run slots parlor on Parcel 5. The city is now accepting ideas until July 15 from anyone interested in developing the site.

City officials have long seen Parcel 5 as ripe for redevelopment — a place where the right project could create jobs, help reinvigorate downtown culture and nightlife, and draw more people to the center of the city.

But many social media users steered away from the idea of developing Parcel 5 after the concert, saying the area should be kept open as a green park or a permanent outdoor event venue.

It’s an area that can be easily reached by both downtown workers and suburban residents, said Shay Irving of Henrietta, who works downtown.

“The central location is prime,” he said, adding that, as a worker nearby, “you could literally walk out the door and there could be an outdoor concert.”

While Irving said downtown still needs work to be seen as a safe pedestrian space, he’s witnessed the area “improve dramatically” after commuting into the city from Henrietta for two years. He plans to move to the Park Avenue area later this year.

Downtown planners who’ve analyzed Rochester in the past consistently said the city could use more green space, said Zimmer-Meyer. Some believe that when Midtown disappeared, the city lost its “town square,” and whatever goes into Parcel 5, whether it’s inside or outside, could recapture that essence, she said.

Problem is, a park wouldn’t bring in tax revenue, Zimmer-Meyer said.

Some of the development ideas for Parcel 5 wouldn't necessarily bring in tax dollars either. A casino or a nonprofit-run arts center, for example, wouldn't have to pay taxes. But city officials have said previously that at least some developers would be willing to pay the city a fee to help cover the cost of public services, and the city sees the potential for the right development to spark more economic activity nearby.

Taxpayers already have made a substantial investment in Midtown — the state ponied up about $55 million to demolish the vacant mall that once stood there.

Another challenge: A park also would need to be planned and built to regularly host concerts or other events in order to draw crowds, and it would need consistent maintenance, Zimmer-Meyer noted. If a park were owned by the city, that cost would come out of city coffers.

On the flip side, a park could bring a higher quality of life to the area and could ignite the surrounding market, Zimmer-Meyer said.

“Having an open space can create value in all of the taxpaying properties around it,” she said.

It's not clear that the city is opposed to the idea of some open space at Midtown, but Mayor Lovely Warren's administration made clear in the past that it doesn't want grass alone at Parcel 5. And the city is now asking for a mix of uses there — commercial, residential and offices, perhaps.

Last year, the city asked developers for ideas for the Midtown site. It got only two proposals, and it rejected both, with Warren saying neither was the right fit. One plan called for a green space similar to Bryant Park in New York City, with grass, pop-up retail, food vendors and a public stage.

Ken Sato, the man behind the park idea last year, said he's thinking about resubmitting his proposal to the city in response to its latest request for proposals at Parcel 5.

Sato is co-owner of Small World Food, a worker-owned organic food business, and director of Big Picture Rochester, which has adorned downtown buildings with large photos. He submitted the park proposal on behalf of his own company, City Design Lab LLC.

He said he thinks he wasn't taken seriously last time around because he isn't an experienced developer, nor a political donor. But the Jazz Festival showed the potential for a permanent public space, he said.

Last time around, Sato struggled to find an image to convey what he hoped to do at Midtown. Now he said all he has to do is show pictures from the Trombone Shorty show. Many successful cities have such places in their downtowns, and it helps to fuel nearby development, he said.

"We always talk about how divided this community is," Sato said. "One reason is we don’t have such a community place in the center."

Sato said this time, he may suggest that a nonprofit own and operate the park, and help pay for its operation by selling naming rights to the property. He stressed that he doesn't want to use taxpayer money.

Regardless of what kind of development ends up settling there, the jazz fest played a role in sparking discussion about the parcel, said Zimmer-Meyer.

Rochester’s downtown followed the fate of other American cityscapes in its decline over several decades, but it’s surging back and the jazz fest and other events have helped reintroduce it to a whole new generation.

“The jazz fest reminded everyone what it feels like to have a vibrant city,” she said.

STADDEO@Gannett.com

DRILEY@Gannett.com