A multi-million dollar project is coming to the Cornhill neighborhood in Utica. Forty-five million dollars will be invested in a renaissance center and an impact center.

“We’ll give everyone the opportunity to craft their skills, to empower themselves, to empower the neighborhood, to empower our city and this is another level of what we feel is so important to a neighborhood,” Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri said.

On the corner of James and Neilson streets will be the Cornhill Renaissance Center.

“On the first floor, an urban grocery store, four entrepreneurial incubator pods,” People First executive director Bob Calli said. “Where residents can test their skills and experience to see if in fact they can go out to the market place and make a living with those skills.”

There will also be 36 units of affordable housing on the upper floors along with an urgent care. The second component of the Cornhill revitalization project will be the impact center, which will be located on West Street.

“The site that we’re currently on is a large four-lot site. It is the largest land owned by a non-profit black organization in the City of Utica,” said Jawwaad Rasheed, president of the Board of Directors for the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties.

The site is currently the home of the Mid-Utica Neighborhood Preservation Corporation. The organization was created to focus on renewal and restoration projects in Cornhill and for many years provided an adult day care program. The site is currently used for senior citizen services and a facility for community events.

“All of the things that have historically moved out of this neighborhood will be a part of the impact center,” Rasheed said. “From banking, to medical doctor offices, to dentist offices, to having physical fitness, a nice size gymnasium, to having a commercial kitchen for neighborhood events and programs, to having board rooms, conference rooms, classrooms. 

The impact center will also provide 60 mixed-income housing units with a percentage of the units utilized for the elderly. Rasheed says bringing these resources back to the community will help give people of color the tools they need to develop.

“We are really looking forward to this possibility of opening the doors of opportunity for all of the people in Utica, especially those of color,” Rasheed said.

Groundbreaking for the project is expected to begin in the spring of 2023.

The City of Utica has committed a little over $900,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funding toward this revitalization. The partners have applied for state and federal grants to assist with the project.