Winn Development Hopes To Keep M.C.C. As Tenant

Winn Development is hoping their actions will speak louder than their words when it comes to impressing Monroe Community College officials, "you're going to see new escalators, you're going to see the Rochester Police Department break ground in the next few months, we're going to be doing new street scaping in the spring," explained Joseph Eddy, Vice President of Winn Development.

The development company says M.C.C.'s decision to move out doesn't have any effect on its plan to upgrade the Sibley building.  In fact they say the building will be so impressive that M.C.C. might want to stay, "our goal in the rest of the Sibley Building is to develop housing, to develop retail, to develop office," explained Eddy, "and then when four and a half years come, if the Kodak site works out, or doesn't work out we can come up with a plan then."

Winn has support among Democrats in the county legislature.  They believe the Sibley deal is a better deal for taxpayers, "there's four and a half years still remaining on M.C.C.'s lease, there's a lot that can happen, there are a lot of questions on the Kodak proposal," said Eddy.

In the meantime Winn Development will continue to push its plan for a renovated M.C.C. campus inside the Sibley Building, "we're still looking forward to getting out and talking to people about the $18 million dollars in savings that our proposal can offer and we want people to look at our proposal."

The part of the building that holds the M.C.C. campus will remain untouched until the lease expires.  Renovations on the rest will begin this year.

M.C.C.'s lease at the Sibley Building runs through December 2016.  College officials hope to move to the new campus at Kodak in the fall 2016 semester.