Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation unveiled ambitious plans for a mixed-use project on a City-owned parking lot at 201 Ellicott Street in December 2016. That plan proved to be too ambitious, cars are still using the lot, and a talked about revised plan has yet to be released. The project is far from dead however.

Ciminelli Real Estate was selected to develop the site in February 2016. Later that year it released a plan prepared by Cannon Design that called for 110,000 sq.ft. of office space, approximately 200 apartments, a large public plaza, 44,000 sq.ft. of retail space anchored by Tops’ Orchard Fresh, and parking for 800 cars.

Plans for two-levels of underground parking was determined to be cost prohibitive, and the project was put on hold. Ciminelli headed back to the drawing board and had its designated developer agreement with the City extended earlier this year. we understand that Tops has recently received a revised proposal from the developer which will be reviewed by the company’s development staff.

There is action behind the scenes however. Sources say Ciminelli has moved away from a grocery store anchor and is exploring other food-based concepts for the site. There’s more. The development team is holding two invitation-only community stakeholder workshops next Thursday to “gain valuable feedback to inform and enhance” their project. And, a public meeting is scheduled for January according to City officials. The direction the project is taking and a timeline for construction should be known then.