Downtown Rochester

Downtown Rochester is the economic center of Rochester, New York, and the 2nd largest in Upstate New York, employing more than 50,000 people, and housing more than 10,800.

Rochesterville, as it was once called, was founded in present day downtown Rochester by Col. Nathaniel Rochester, Maj. Charles Carroll, and Col. William Fitzhugh, all of Hagerstown, Maryland. After the opening of the Erie Canal, which flowed through downtown Rochester until the early 20th century, the area boomed as a result of the city's flour industry. By 1834, some 20 flour mills were producing 500,000 barrels annually, the population reached 13,500 and the city area expanded to 4,000 acres (16 km²). Rochester was then re-chartered as a city, and Jonathan Child, son-in-law of Col. Rochester, was elected its first mayor.

Following the Civil War, many post-war industrial companies were founded in Rochester, including Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, Western Union, and Gleason Works. The city hall opened downtown in 1875.

At the turn of the century, Rochester was a thriving city. Street cars operated throughout the area and a subway was opened in 1927 on the old Erie Canal bed that ran through downtown. The subway operated for 29 years until it closed in 1956. After the subway was shut down, a series of bus routes were opened and a new auxiliary Interstate Highway was opened that would become I-490.^{[citation needed]}

In 1962, Midtown Plaza was constructed in downtown Rochester. Midtown was a major urban shopping mall and the first urban indoor shopping mall in the United States. Midtown Plaza brought many people downtown, but it would soon become a victim of suburbanization. From the 1960s into the 1980s, suburban shopping malls such as Eastview Mall in Victor and The Marketplace Mall in Henrietta opened up. McCurdy's and Forman's closed in 1994. Their closing was quickly followed by the closing of the Midtown branch of Wegmans Food Markets. Before long the mall's only tenants were Peebles department store, Radio Shack, Payless Shoes, some downscale clothing stores, a dollar store, two jewelry stores, a gift shop and a US post office. The mall finally closed in 2007 and the land was redeveloped into a mix of residential and office space. Midtown Tower was renovated and reopened as a mixed use tower of apartments, condos, restaurants and stores called Tower 280 in 2015. Windstream opened a regional headquarters in the former Seneca building part of the mall and Gannett constructed an adjacent office building at the corner of Main and Clinton for the Democrat and Chronicle that opened in May 2016. In 2017, a portion of the I-490 Inner Loop was removed and converted to a surface street lined with new housing developments.

Downtown Rochester is showcased by several skyscrapers including the 450 ft (140 m) Xerox Tower, creating an urban setting. In the early 2000s, the City of Rochester built new condos and other residential buildings in Downtown with huge success. Older buildings are being converted into lofts. The current vacancy rate downtown is less than the 5% average in most downtowns. A $200 million renovation of the massive Sibley Building is ongoing, turning what has recently served mainly as office space into a mixed-use (stores and apartments) development.

The downtown area is also home to many shops, bars, restaurants and parks, the heaviest concentration being in the East End near the Eastman School of Music. Recent years have also seen a growing concentration of nightclubs in the Saint Paul Quarter near the new RTS Transit Hub in between St. Paul Street and Clinton Avenue. Manhattan Square Park, located downtown, changes seasonally. During the winter months, the park attracts ice skaters to its kidney-shaped rink while in the summer the rink becomes a pool equipped with three fountains. Every Thursday in the summer the park hosts large outdoor concerts, a series known as Party in the Park. The shows used to be free, but the venue now has a $5 cover charge. There is also a boat tour on the Genesee River. The Mary Jemison Boat Tour provides a boat tour of the Genesee River overlooking the Rochester skyline.

Washington Square Park is located in the heart of the business district, centered around a large civil war-era monument to Abraham Lincoln. For much of the city's history it has served as a backdrop for protests, rallies and occasional celebrations. Thousands have managed to fit in the park for demonstrations concerning police shootings and women's rights despite its relatively small size. The square was also the site of a months-long encampment by Occupy Rochester; thousands of locals protesting income inequality essentially lived in the park until they were removed by police in January 2012.