BY LARRY GLAZER

There is contagious enthusiasm and interest in the City of Rochester right now, and lots of promise. Unfortunately, with a slate overflowing with proposed projects but short on bankroll and, in some instances, consensus, government and private leadership tend to fall short on delivery. This ends up hurting the credibility of our well-intentioned leadership.

The city has declined in the last 25 years. Population, household income, and employment are down. I think, fortunately, we have bottomed out and started the long climb upward. All the right political players and teams seem to be in place to start seeing visible progress.

Fifty years ago Rochester was blessed with leaders of private industry who pulled everyone together and made things happen in rapid and informal ways: Carlson, Gleason, Gosnell, and Wilson, to name a few. Speed of decision-making is critical to new projects. Who were the city's lay leaders of the past 25 years? There were none. It's time to identify our next generation of movers and shakers, and support them.

The City of Rochester used to have many strong, major, homegrown manufacturing businesses as its backbone. Now we must use all the resources at our disposal to assist small high-tech and service-based companies to grow and repopulate the city's buildings.

Still, there is a bright ray of hope. I see incremental changes in the city, and downtown in particular, in the next 25 years. Numerous empty buildings will be repopulated. The Trifecta - the Midtown complex, Ren Square, and Sibley's - will all move forward in some fashion. Urban living will continue its revival, with lots of loft living units, townhouses, and condos. A supermarket, theater, restaurants, and other retail formats will thrive as part of the Trifecta and other developments (including our own Alexander Park, the former Genesee Hospital campus).

Private developers are beginning to give people what they are demanding: cost-effective, well-designed buildings that are being renovated to compete with new construction. These renovated buildings have character that is near impossible (and cost prohibitive) to duplicate in new buildings... and do not exist in suburbia.

High-speed rail may play a prominent role in the city's future success. Eliminating one-way streets and adding more on-street parking will ease fears that many non-urban dwellers have in coming downtown. Colleges (U of R, MCC, St. John Fisher, Brockport, RIT, and others) will drive the economic engine for the city's future growth. Their impact on downtown will be sizable, and youth will be represented in all facets of city life.

With the continued shrinkage of Kodak, I see the possibility of recycling its corporate headquarters into a stand-alone urban village called "Eastman City." Combined with High Falls, this has the possibility of producing a solid downtown complex with retail, residential, offices, and services. The vast in-place infrastructure could make Eastman City a world-class development. This is a value-play suited for today's economy. Just think of the replacement costs for these structures. There is nothing like this complex anywhere in upstate New York.

Going forward, the strengths of the city are the diversity of its buildings, a solid infrastructure (including a short-commute expressway system), and redevelopment along the Genesee River (the city's long-neglected founding resource).

The biggest challenges facing the city are finding the capital to move projects forward, overcoming the economic fears of average tax-paying citizens, and working through the problems in the banking industry.

The continued growth of bi-partisan political efforts is an absolute must in overcoming any obstacles that stand in the way of the future growth and success of the City of Rochester.

We're starting slowly, but hold on to your hats; we're gaining traction.

Larry Glazer, a Buffalo native, is CEO and managing partner of Buckingham Properties, which he co-founded in 1970. Among the firm's developments are 19th and early 20th-century industrial and commercial buildings in Rochester that now house office and residential uses.