ITHACA — With 10 community solar farms built and an 11th soon to get underway, Renovus Solar is looking to bring the concept to a wider market.

The company has built residential solar-power systems in the area, says Ryan McCune, Renovus’ head of marketing, but until now has only built community solar farms in areas served by New York State Electric and Gas Corporation.

The 11th farm, to be built on commercial property in Homer, will be the first in National Grid’s service area, McCune says.

Solar farms differ from residential systems in several ways, key among them being that they are built offsite. However, McCune says there are many similarities in how they operate.

A customer would pay for a certain amount of kilowatts of power from the farm. The average home uses about seven kilowatt hours of power. Depending on the particulars of the actual solar farm, purchasing that much power would cost something between $20,000 and $22,000, McCune says. Tax credits cut that cost by about 60 percent for residential users, he adds.

Final costs for small businesses would depend on different tax considerations and grants, he says. “With commercial, it’s a little bit different.” However, the discount should again be around 60 percent. “No one pays sticker price,” he says.

That initial spending would cover the cost of electricity for 25 years, “guaranteed,” McCune says. If those buying into a solar farm finance the purchase over 15 years and continue to use the same amount of electricity, McCune says the final 10 years of electricity are free. 

A dozen interested people attended a question-and-action session held at the end of May at Drumlins Country Club in Syracuse, McCune says. He says that at such sessions many people want to know how a community solar farm works.

Some wonder about the environmental impact of solar farms. McCune says that much of the land used for solar farms is lying fallow and that Renovus uses building techniques that minimize impact on the land. For instance, he says the only concrete poured is a 10-square-foot pad for the transformer. The rest of equipment is built on galvanized I-beams that can be dug up and removed in 25 years when the lease on the property is finished. “We’re not making the area non-viable,” he says.

Renovus has been growing rapidly in recent years, McCune says. Starting with two people in 2003, Renovus grew to a dozen or so employees by 2012. Today, the company has nearly 70 employees, McCune says, most involved in installing and maintaining solar systems. The company has installed more than 10 megawatts of power at residences, commercial installations, and solar farms — more than half of it since 2015, he adds. (For comparison, Nine Mile Point 1 nuclear power plant is rated at 609 megawatts.) Another two megawatts of solar power are scheduled to be installed by year’s end.

In addition to the solar farms, McCune says Renovus has installed more than 700 residential solar-power systems.

While solar power may seem an odd fit in often-cloudy Central New York, McCune explains that community solar farms for this area are built to produce twice as much electricity as needed in the summer months. The extra electricity earns owners power credits that get applied in colder, darker months.

Additionally, he says that solar farms are built at angles and in areas that maximize solar exposure and limit shade — something that isn’t always possible in a residential installation.

Plus, he says that systems built in open fields are less likely to collect snow and more likely to shed it when the wind picks up.       

COLLINS LANDING — Construction continues on the North Country Welcome Center near the Thousand Islands Bridge in Collins Landing in Jefferson County, the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced. 

The welcome center is on track to open this fall. Funding for regional welcome centers was included in the 2018 state budget.

To date, crews have installed underground plumbing and power, finished rough site grading, and have “nearly” completed the foundation. The project involves about 100 construction jobs and all contractors working on the welcome center are New York firms, Cuomo’s office said in a June 1 news release.

Like other welcome centers across the state, the North Country welcome center will include regionally specific elements linked to the “history and natural beauty” of the St. Lawrence River, as well as the history of the area. Tourist attractions in the region include Boldt Castle on Heart Island in Alexandria Bay and the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton. 

The welcome center will include a Taste NY Market with locally grown and sourced products from across the North Country. The state will also place multiple interactive I Love New York kiosks throughout the welcome center, allowing visitors to “design a trip itinerary and test their knowledge of the region,” per the release.

A large screen will promote regional tourism attractions and destinations. A boat from the Antique Boat Museum will “pay tribute” to the region’s boating heritage, and an artifact wall will include regionally specific items. 

Outside the facility, visitors will see a large I Love New York sculpture and a Walk of Fame will recognize famous New Yorkers from the region. It’ll also have a playground for children. 

“The North Country is home to some of the most beautiful natural attractions New York has to offer and this welcome center is perfectly situated to highlight that,” Cuomo said in the release. “From the Thousand Islands to the St. Lawrence River, this welcome center will encourage visitors to venture off the highways and experience these one-of-a-kind attractions.”

SYRACUSE — A Minnesota firm will work with VIP Architectural Associates (VIPAA) on the new design of the façade at the Post-Standard building.

VIPAA has selected Minneapolis, Minnesota–based Snow Kreilich Architects for the work, the local firm recently announced.

VIP Architectural Associates is part of Syracuse–based VIP Structures, which has announced plans that include their new corporate headquarters on the first floor of the structure that faces Clinton Square. 

VIPAA describes Snow Kreilich Architects as a “nationally recognized and award-winning architectural firm that recently received the highest honor bestowed by the American Institute of Architecture (AIA), the 2018 AIA Architecture Firm Award.” 

Design principals Julie Snow and Matthew Kreilich lead the firm. Both Snow and Kreilich have a connection to the area as they were visiting professors at Syracuse University’s School of Architecture in 2011, VIPAA said.

“VIP Architectural Associates has collaborated with national firms on high-profile projects in the past, including the redevelopment of the Dunk & Bright warehouse, known today as the Nancy Cantor Warehouse. Our team is looking forward to collaborating with Snow Kreilich, as a world-renowned façade specialist, to bring a fresh eye to this project that is rich in history and a cornerstone of downtown Syracuse,” David Nutting, chairman & CEO of VIP Structures, said in a news release.

The 275,000-square-foot building is located at 1 Clinton Square in Syracuse. VIP Structures — an architecture, engineering, construction and development firm — is currently headquartered at One Webster’s Landing in Syracuse.

About the project

New York State has awarded VIP Structures of Syracuse a $1.5 million REDC grant for its work to renovate the Post-Standard building into its new headquarters.

State officials on Dec. 13 announced the funding during the regional economic-development council (REDC) awards in Albany.

VIP will use the entire $1.5 million in funding to refurbish the existing structure for commercial use by VIP, the Herald Publishing Company, LLC, and other tenants. 

Besides its new headquarters, VIP plans to lease the second floor, which includes roughly 50,000 square feet, as additional office space. 

VIP is also planning a three-story addition consisting of 25,000 square feet of commercial leased space on the third floor, and residential units overlooking Clinton Square on floors four and five. 

CARTHAGE — The CEO of Carthage Area Hospital anticipates the organization should find out “sometime in July” if the state approves funding to help pay for a consolidated medical campus. 

Hospital officials recently announced they are considering a plan that would consolidate the 53-year-old hospital, two of its outpatient-clinic facilities, and administration building on a new medical campus.

The organization is pursuing $25 million in funding from the New York State Department of Health’s statewide health-care facility transformation program, it said in a June 1 news release. 

That funding would cover a portion of the total project cost, says Richard Duvall, CEO of Carthage Area Hospital, who spoke with CNYBJ on June 4.

The construction cost for a new building is about $49 million. “In addition to that, there’s about $15 million of other costs for furniture, fixtures, and equipment,” Duvall adds.

When asked how the organization would finance the project outside the state funding, Duvall replies that the “vast majority” would be through commercial lending. “We would also do a capital campaign through our foundation,” he adds. 

Carthage Area Hospital will use a request-for-proposal process to select an architect, a contractor, and a lender for the project, according to Duvall.

Meanwhile, the hospital’s board of directors is still reviewing the project and the hospital’s conversations with local, regional and state leaders also continue.

Deciding to pursue project

The proposal calls for construction of a replacement hospital and an attached rural health center. Hospital officials are evaluating the “best possible site” for the campus, according to the release.

The plan follows a review of current hospital facilities that began in 2016 at the request of the hospital’s board of directors. 

While examining options to renovate the hospital, board members and leadership quickly realized that it “wasn’t the most sustainable path to take,” the release stated. 

Renovations would cost $44 million, the hospital said. The work would include service-line disruption over a phased, 10-year timeline, which would “jeopardize patient care and risk the loss of much-needed revenues to maintain [operations].” 

After considering all the facts and the $44 million renovation cost versus the $49 million new construction cost, Carthage Area Hospital opted to pursue the new building. 

In the release, Duvall pointed to a 2016 presentation by Stroudwater Associates that hospital leaders heard during the National Rural Health Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

Portland, Maine–based Stroudwater Associates is the same consultant that the New York State Office of Rural Health retains, the hospital notes.

Its presentation outlined the “impressive results achieved” by 172 “new build” critical-access hospitals across the country. Duvall called the presentation “the most convincing evidence” for pursuing the new building. 

Carthage Area Hospital “would be the first New York State critical-access hospital to follow this proven replacement model,” the organization said. 

MSA challenge

One challenge that hospital officials face while evaluating locations for a new campus is a “newly defined,” federally designated metropolitan statistical area (MSA), “which exists from Watertown to Carthage and Fort Drum,” the organization said.

An online document by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis lists the area as the Watertown–Fort Drum MSA. The MSA’s 2016 population was 114,006, which ranked 336th in the U.S.

As Duvall explains it, an organization can’t have a rural health clinic designation if it’s located within an MSA.

“We’re looking to get our primary-care clinics designated as rural health clinics, which [allows for] enhanced reimbursement methodology. But you can’t do that if you’re inside of an MSA,” says Duvall.

So, Carthage Area Hospital will look for a 12-15 acre site outside the MSA, he adds.

Aging systems

Many of the organization’s “major” physical-plant systems are “either at or past end of effective use and need costly overhaul and attention.” 

The systems include electrical; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, and water and sewer, the hospital said.

In addition, as the hospital has expanded services across the twin villages to operate in four different buildings, it has had “inefficiencies that a consolidated medical campus would correct.” 

A modern facility would employ highly efficient building design and technology that would improve patient care and flow.

About the hospital

Carthage Area Hospital was established as a nonprofit rural community hospital in 1965. It operates today as a 25-bed, critical access hospital, serving about 83,000 residents in Jefferson, northern Lewis, and southern St. Lawrence counties. The hospital formed a clinical affiliation with Crouse Health in Syracuse in 2017.

The hospital also operates a network of community-based clinics, including its Philadelphia Medical Center, Family Health Center, Pediatric Clinic, and Women’s Way to Wellness, per its release. 

SYRACUSE — Crews are preparing to renovate the top three floors in Axa Tower I in downtown Syracuse where Hancock Estabrook, LLP will operate once the work is complete. 

The law firm has signed a 13-year extension of its current lease in the building, Hancock Estabrook recently announced. 

Hancock Estabrook, which currently occupies floors 13 through 15 in AXA Tower I, will move to floors 17 through 19 once crews complete what the firm described in a news release as “extensive” renovations. The law firm declined to disclose the cost of the project. 

CBD Companies, which manages the Axa Towers, will provide construction-management services.

Hancock Estabrook expects the work to begin this month and expects to move to the renovated space near the end of the year, Renee Benda, marketing director at Hancock Estabrook, tells CNYBJ.

“They’re in the final process right now of getting the building permit from the City [of Syracuse], so we’re hoping that the demolition is going to start within a few weeks [in June],” says Janet Callahan, managing partner at Hancock Estabrook, who spoke with CNYBJ on May 31. 

Callahan notes that part of the firm’s intent renovating its space is to “attract and retain” younger attorneys. “It’s a reflection of the way they want their work space to be,” she says.

The new office will have 36,000 square feet of space with features that King + King Architects designed, Hancock Estabrook said. The design incorporates “open, collaborative” spaces, natural interior light, and video conferencing and training facilities.

Rochester–based Bergmann, which operates an office in Syracuse, consulted on the mechanical design of the space.

Deciding on space

Hancock Estabrook’s lease with AmTrust Realty Corp. was set to expire at the end of 2018, says Callahan. New York City–based AmTrust Realty Corp. owns the Axa Towers.

Hancock Estabrook in 2016 started looking at other available space and considering whether it should stay in the city or move out of the downtown area. The law firm looked at five other sites, which Callahan declined to name.

The firm’s employees also completed a survey to “take their pulse” on what they preferred in a space and location.

CBD Companies proposed the idea of moving within the building. The other alternative would have been for Hancock Estabrook to remain in the firm’s current location and renovate one floor at a time, moving employees during the renovation work, and then moving them back to their respective floor. 

“We decided this option, moving the whole office up to three higher floors after the whole renovation project is completed, would be much less disruptive,” says Callahan.

Law offices getting less formal

Hancock Estabrook recognizes that the “nature of law firms is changing,” Callahan says. She notes that law offices nowadays are designed so that offices are the same size and constructed to get people out of their offices and into “collaborative spaces where people can work together and share ideas.”

“Law offices now are less formal than they used to be,” Callahan says. 

The new Hancock Estabrook space will include design elements that are “intended to create comfortable and collaborative” spaces for the firm’s 57 attorneys and 56 staff members.

The elements include a two-floor, open reception area with a “panoramic” view of downtown Syracuse and a media room that will accommodate large groups and seminars and small-seating areas for informal meetings. 

The newly designed office will also have “built-in, stand-up” work spaces for administrative staff and a break room with kitchen facilities and charging stations for laptops.