City Grill closing at East Avenue and Alexander Street

Marcia Greenwood | Democrat and Chronicle

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City Grill, an upscale restaurant at 384 East Ave., is closing its doors Wednesday night "after a beautiful 5 year run," according to a statement posted to City Grill’s website and on Facebook.

“After much deliberation, the owners and management have made the decision to close due to complications from the coinciding reconstruction of what was East Avenue Inn and Suites,” the statement continues, without describing the complications.

A city spokesman later tied the problem to parking and overall access.

The East Avenue Inn sits behind City Grill at the corner of Alexander Street and is being torn down and replaced by a Courtyard by Marriott.

The inn, City Grill and adjoining event space Ballroom384 comprised a major redevelopment project that began in late 2011.

Initially, neighbors mounted a legal challenge to the Marriott proposal, which emerged in late 2018, but they wound up dropping their lawsuit.

The City Grill statement goes on to say that the restaurant's management team is working “on a renovation and reconstruction plan ... in hopes of reopening alongside the new hotel” but does not offer a date for completion. Calls seeking further comment were not immediately returned.

Featuring a 1,500-square-foot patio, fireplace, fire pit and distinctive glass tower encasing an illuminated birch tree, City Grill opened in May 2014. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said the restaurant and Ballroom384 “further solidifies East Avenue and Alexander Street as a restaurant and entertainment destination.”

She said 75 jobs resulted from the opening of City Grill, which received a low-interest $200,000 loan through the city and tax breaks from what was then called the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency, or COMIDA, and is now known as Imagine Monroe.

Monroe County communications director Jesse Sleezer said the restaurant is in the eighth year of a 10-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with Imagine Monroe and that, as of late Wednesday morning, restaurant owners had not notified Imagine Monroe about the closing. Owners paid off the $200,000 loan in 2017, said city of Rochester spokesman Justin Roj, and met the requirements of a separate $25,000 city grant to create four full-time and four part-time jobs.

"We eagerly await the reopening of the City Grill upon completion of the Marriott hotel on the adjacent property," Roj said in a statement. "We understand that the ongoing construction has greatly impacted the restaurant's parking and access to the site. However, the ownership team's investment in the new hotel and their plans to reopen the restaurant demonstrate the continued economic growth in the East End and throughout Downtown Rochester."

It wasn't clear how many people the restaurant employed as of Wednesday.

City Grill’s statement notes that events will continue at Ballroom384.

This is a developing story.

MGREENWO@Gannett.com