Community development work honored

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Last week, NeighborWorks Rochester held the sixth annual Standing Together Achieving Results (STAR) Awards, honoring winners in a variety of efforts towards community development in Rochester.
Shane Bartholf was honored for economic development, having redeveloped the former Emmanuel Baptist Church, built in 1831, into the Halo Lofts at 60 Grove Place.
Bartholf owns Empire Living LLC, a development company solely focused on downtown’s housing and redevelopment.
The Halo Lofts include cherry kitchens, stainless steel appliances, 20-foot ceilings and free internet and cable. Bartholf said he saw great potential in the old church.
“I see the future of Rochester and the excitement that’s going to be happening over the next five years with so many more employees coming downtown,” he said. “I think we were ahead of the market a little bit, but I would rather be ahead of the market than behind it.”
Richard Doyle, owner of Bryce & Doyle, a full-service design/build firm, received the award for the community revitalization category.
Doyle transformed the former Gruttadauria’s Bakery at 19 Jay St., into a 3,800-sq. ft. design living showroom.
Doyle said he had to decide about three years ago whether to stay in the city or move his company to the east side of town, a decision that was not easy to make.
“I happened to get together with some other businesses in the neighborhood and I found out that a few of them were willing to invest,” he said.
Doyle asked the city for funds to help the neighborhood stay on its feet, but when the city told him they didn’t think they’d be able to help, he threatened to move his business to Pittsford.
City officials “called me the next day and said they were working on a plans that would allow the neighborhood businesses funds to stay in the area,” Doyle said. “That’s really how the whole process started.”
During the planning process, Doyle also consulted with his customers to see if they would have a problem referring potential clients to the 140-year-old Jay Street location. When they said they were fine with the neighborhood, Doyle was set to begin remodeling.
Doyle also owns a wood shop attached to the old bakery.
“Clients said they liked the fact that they can see a wood shop attached to the business because it shows credibility that I know what I’m doing and I’m not just a salesman in a showroom,” he said.
Mimi Freund Tilton was honored in the “other” category, which this year was given for historic preservation.
Mimi and her brother, Peter Freund, purchased and renovated the Parry Building at 224 Mill St., and revitalizing the space by incorporating commercial, retail and residential lofts.
“I’ve spent my whole career in real estate and real estate development and my brother had a lot of construction experience so we decided to rehab the building,” Freund Tilton said.
Half of the commercial space in the building is leased to SEI Design Group, an architectural firm that recently won the American Institute of Architects, Rochester Chapter’s design award for their Parry Building work.
Freund Tilton is a member of the Rochester Preservation Board and said that, if nothing else, the transformation and reuse old buildings in the city is an ecologically friendly effort.
“We took something that has been here for 100 years and put it to good use,” she said. “It is a piece of history. George Eastman used to meet with the owner of the building and it’s so fun to be able to tell people that.”
Finally, Ned Gramlich was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award, named after his father, Red Gramlich. Both Red and Ned passed away in 2007.
According to a statement from NeighborWorks, “the loss of two, dedicated housing advocates in the same year makes this recognition more significant. Ned made significant contributions to our industry at the national level, while his father worked tirelessly here in Rochester on the same issues.”
Ned was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve from 1997 to 2005. During his tenure there, he led its Committee on Consumer and Community Affairs, the Airline Transportation Stabilization Board and NeighborWorks America.
He had just completed a book with Robert Reischauer, entitled “Subprime Mortgages: America’s Latest Boom and Bust,” on the current crisis in the mortgage industry. He was a vocal and passionate speaker on the subject and predicted today’s mortgage industry crisis nearly 10 years ago.
NeighborWorks Rochester, a full-service housing agency that serves the City of Rochester, is a nonprofit organization and member of the national NeighborWorks Network.