At the west end of the Pont de Rennes Bridge in High Falls sits the Rochester Water Works building, a two-story, ivy-covered Victorian structure bedecked with blue iron accents and surrounded by bubbling fountains.
The Water Works building has overlooked High Falls for nearly 150 years. Once a hydroelectric power plant and supplier of high-pressure water to fire hydrants, the building housed a museum dedicated to High Falls before falling vacant in 2019.
But if a city plan goes through, the building will house a visitor center for a new park in the High Falls gorge. The project is expected to cost $5 million, and the city is responsible for contributing half of that funding. Of the $5 million total, city officials expect to designate $3 million for construction and renovations at the Water Works building, which had served as a visitor center in the past.
The building renovations are part of a three-part plan to develop High Falls as a tourist attraction. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 2023 budget plan included $6 million for design work relating to the possible establishment of a 40-acre urban state park at High FallsThe budget was due April 1, but lawmakers and Hochul hadn’t reached agreement as of Monday afternoon.
The city has received a $500,000 grant from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation for the park visitor’s center project; City Council is set to vote on accepting the grant on April 12. Last year, the project received a $2 million grant from Empire State Development.
Headquartered next door to the Water Works building, environmental advocacy group Greentopia has long rallied for an “ecodistrict” in High Falls.
“There is incredible potential to once again put the falls at the forefront of the city’s pride,” Greentopia’s proposal for an ecodistrict reads. “By having the ecodistrict centered on the Falls, the community is reminded of its history as a city and the natural asset that gave Rochester its beginning.”
Lisa Baron, chair of Greentopia’s board, said putting money into High Falls is a “no-brainer.”
“You’re spending money on resources that aren’t going to go bankrupt, they’re not going to move their headquarters,” Baron said. “High Falls is going to be here forever.”
Baron also stressed the importance of urban green space. She envisions the potential park at High Falls as a place that introduces nature to a population that often doesn’t have easy access to it.
“I can’t say if it’s a good investment to build a new football stadium, but I can say that it’s good to build a park in an area of downtown where a large percentage of people are not going to jump in a car to go see a tree in Letchworth,” Baron said. “Because one, they don’t have a car, and two, they have no desire to do that, they don’t feel welcomed. But here, if we do our homework and build a park that’s welcoming to everyone, boom: mission accomplished.”
Rich Perrin, commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Services, said the plans for High Falls are part of a broader citywide shift to invest in Rochester’s natural attributes.
“The state park and the investments that the city is making are not being done in a vacuum,” Perrin said. “We’ve had a significant amount of development since someone has come in and said, ‘Okay, how can we take advantage of these characteristics and attributes that are unique in the High Falls area?’”
The remaining $2.5 million of the project’s cost will be paid by the city, and is expected to be allocated this summer in the 2022-23 Capital Improvement Plan. The plan for High Falls was floated in 2018 as part of the ROC the Riverway initiative, which stated an ultimate goal of “creating a recreation and outdoor adventure destination that capitalizes on views of the dramatic waterfall and gorge.”
The ROC the Riverway proposal estimated a $30 million cost for the full High Falls plan.
“I can tell you that from a tourism standpoint we are thrilled for the potential of the High Falls State Park,” said Rachel Laber Pulvino of the local tourism promotion agency Visit Rochester, an organization that promotes tourism in the region. “Having a state park encompassing the urban waterfall at High Falls is going to draw visitors from near and far. High Falls is already one of the largest urban waterfalls in the country, and the planned amenities surrounding the waterfall as part of the High Falls State Park are exciting.”
The new ecotourism plans for High Falls are the latest in a long, storied history of attempts to revitalize the riverside district, all of which so far have failed.
In the mid-1990s, then-Mayor Bill Johnson set out to create an entertainment district at High Falls. He envisioned nightclubs, bars, restaurants, and venues. The city invested $40 million into the entertainment district over the course of roughly 10 years. Every nightclub, brewery, bar, and restaurant that opened in High Falls during that time period faltered.
For example, Empire Brewing Company, a now-defunct brewery that was based in Syracuse, operated a microbrewery beginning 1997 before shuttering in 2003 after several years of struggling to turn a profit. That space was taken over by Bru, a short-lived brewery and restaurant. In 2003, a $2.35 million city contract with Cordish Companies resulted in High Falls Live!, a mirror of Cordish’s successful Power Plant Live! entertainment district in its native Baltimore.
The project, which included a tiki bar and other attractions on Mill Street, failed, and in 2008 the city of Rochester opted to not renew a contract with Cordish.
City officials see hope in taking its focus in a different direction by creating a nature preserve in the heart of the city.
Perrin said a major reason the High Falls entertainment district failed was it was simply trying to mimic a successful initiative in another city, with the waterfall itself as an “ancillary feature.”
“It can’t be an ‘us too’ approach that, ‘Oh, they did this in this city or some other part of that city, so we’ll just copy it,’” Perrin said. “This is about place making, not place copying.”
Gino Fanelli is a CITY staff writer.