Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren says Parcel 5 of the former Midtown Plaza will become a downtown green space called "Meet Me At the Five."
It will be a temporary use for the land the city still hopes to develop, but for the time being it will be a public gathering space similar to Kansas City's KC-Live. It will host events managed by the convention center.
Mayor Warren says one reason for this is to show the city is coming back after COVID-19. She says downtown garages have gone from 20 percent occupancy during the worst of the pandemic to 40 percent now.
The city sent a delegation three years ago to Kansas City and was planning this sort of use for Parcel Five, but the mayor says it was derailed a year ago by the coronavirus. She says now it's time to "press play" and get it going.