Report: Cayuga Community College Expansion Stalls Because Tops Sold The Site To Someone Else

May 28, 2010 Contributor
The closed P&C store at River Glen Square, in December, 2009.

The Citizen of Auburn reports that the planned expansion of Cayuga Community College’s Fulton campus is on hold because of a surprise development:  Tops sold the closed P&C store that CCC wanted to a Syracuse law firm.

The college announced with great fanfare its plans to take over the former P&C Foods store at River Glen Mall along Route 481, along with as many of the closed smaller shops as it could get and perhaps a triangle of land just south of the plaza, in order to build a new campus big enough for its needs.

College officials held briefings for staff and local officials on the expansion plans as recently as a few weeks ago.

The current Fulton campus is also located in a former shopping plaza store, but is bursting at the seams with students and lacks room for offices for services.

The Citizen reports:

“(O)n May 14 Tops sold the property to a Syracuse-based law firm, Messenger & Elliott, for $700,000, according to documents from the City of Fulton Real Property Office.

Daniel Larson, the college’s president, summarized his sentiment about the sale as “certainly disappointed.”

“No one likes to be told after having spent time and effort on a project like that that someone else has received it,” said Larson.”

The college does not yet have state funds committed to the project.

The report indicates that the buyer intends to develop the property.

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3 Comments

  2. Bubba – Are you aware of the issues surrounding the purchase? I would refrain from making ridiculous comments if you are not privy to the complete story (I would check out auburnpub.com for more information about the other offers). For an area that has had a steady loss of retail establishments, it is very interesting that a building would receive two other offers (Pioneer group and the accepted Messenger offer). The offers appear to be obvious plays at forcing the college to lease from these groups. I would be very surprised to see if there is any actual retail development that occurs.

  3. Well, they could have taken an option on the property to safeguard their plans. Develop it, sure, with all the empty buildings in Fulton. Who wants to bet that law firm will gladly rent to them at a guaranteed profit?

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