Ren Square spokesman says the project is dead

By Mary Anna Towler on July 24, 2009

Even if the Federal Transit Authority accepts the city's revised proposal for Renaissance Square, the project is dead, says project spokesman Mike Power.

This morning, City Council unanimously approved the proposal, which deletes the theater from the project and makes the bus station smaller.

Ren Square officials submitted a funding request to the FTA this morning, using the city's resolution. But Power says that even if the FTA approves the request, the project won't be built.

The bus terminal isn't big enough for the buses and its passengers, he says, and the city's proposal doesn't provide an adequate staging area for construction of the bus station and the Monroe Community College campus. "So they won't build it," says Power.

If the city's proposal won't work, why submit a request to the FTA? "Just to show that we've done everything we can," Power says.

Power says he didn't know whether the transit authority would look for another location for the transit center.

"It's too early to tell," he says.

He also says he doesn't know what the Rochester Broadway Theatre League will do, now that the possibility of a theater at Main and Clinton is dead.

"I expect everyone will go their separate ways," he says.