City pulls the plug on Pier 45

Pier 45 at the Port of Rochester will not re-open, and the city instead will cancel the lease for the club and restaurant early.

From the beginning, the upscale city-backed restaurant was meant to be an experiment of sorts, to determine whether a restaurant was viable, build a market and possibly sell the business to a private enterprise.

I just felt with the construction happening down there and everything else, that it was just too much to take on, said Joe Floreano, executive director for the Rochester Riverside Convention Center, which the city hired to operate the restaurant.

The city broke ground in November on the first phase of construction, which will create an 85-slip deep-draft marina basin just west of the Terminal Building. The marina should open in 2015. As that is wrapping up, work could be getting underway on the first development parcel along Lake Avenue high-density, preferably owner-occupied housing, possibly a hotel and a mix of retail and office space.

Public investment, to be a mix of federal, state and city funds, is set at $20 million. Private investment should drive the project going forward, with a possible marina expansion to 157 slips and a total construction filling out what today is an expansive parking lot with between 280 and 430 housing units.

During the construction, lunch no longer made sense: The main customers were seniors who would have too far to walk. There would no longer be valet parking. Floreano also cited increased competition from Crescent Beach and restaurants at The Mall at Greece Ridge.

We cant handle the construction. We cant control the weather and, when everything is said and done, it was a weather-related restaurant, he said. But can a restaurant work? He said yes. I think it could, and maybe our concept wasnt right. Somebody else might have a better idea.

The city-owned terminal runs an annual deficit of more than $370,000. That does not include the nearly $80,000 loss anticipated this budget year at Pier 45.

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Other leases at the building are not affected, according to the city, with California Rollin expected to remain open all winter and others to open in the spring. The first report on Pier 45s closing came from WHAM (Channel 13), which also stated that other leases were not being renewed.

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City pulls the plug on Pier 45