A Message from the Project Manager
-Robert Lewis, Development Project Manager — SouthWorks
If you’re like most of Ithaca, you’ve heard about the SouthWorks project for a long time. When I first came across this project, more than a decade ago, it was as a member of Ithaca’s City Planning Board. Emerson had closed the old Morse Chain site a few years prior, and David Lubin was presenting a plan for a whole new neighborhood on the 95-acre South Hill campus. Even back then, it was clear that this project had the potential to address key Ithaca needs: Housing, Recreation, Jobs, and Growth.
Fast-forward a few years and David Lubin’s L Enterprises has been joined by a robust development team. Leading the project is Shift Capital, a certified B-Corp out of Philadelphia with extensive experience in adaptive re-use and a mission to build just and equitable neighborhoods. Rounding out the development team are USC Builds, an MWBE general contractor and developer out of Rochester with deep experience in building diverse teams, and Xylem Projects, a mission-driven MWBE developer out of New York City dedicated to enabling neighborhoods to prosper. This is exactly the sort of team that a project like SouthWorks needs to come to fruition.
Now, the SouthWorks site is coming to life! You can come shop at FOUND, swing by for a tour, or just come walk by the murals. Later this year, we’ll break ground on 230 units of affordable housing with Beacon Communities, and on the Empowerment Center, a historic building on the campus which will house workforce training and daycare spaces. And even after a decade of work, this is still just the beginning.
The next few years will be transformative for SouthWorks. We’ve been awarded $38 million from New York State to replace infrastructure and develop key activations across the site, including advanced manufacturing space and recreation spaces open to the public. Looking further ahead, we’re excited to create more housing, more spaces for businesses, and more opportunities for the Ithaca community to come and experience all this site has to offer.
We’re working hard to bring the SouthWorks neighborhood to life, but we’re not doing it alone. Our efforts build on longstanding support from the City of Ithaca, Town of Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York State, the Appalachian Regional Commission, NYSERDA, community stakeholders, neighbors, and folks like yourself! We cannot do this without you, and we’re thrilled to share the project with you as we push it along. We hope you enjoy the updates in this newsletter, and we look forward to seeing you at SouthWorks!