Letter To Mayor, Re: The Jones Building

Brett Truett of #NoHospitalDowntown, seeks to buy a building to help rebuild the Columbia Lafayette Neighborhood...


January 30, 2018

City Of Utica
Attn: Mr. Robert Palmieri, Mayor
1 Kennedy Plaza
Utica, NY 13502

RE: Jones Building (318.42-1-30)

Dear Mr. Palmieri,

This letter is to let you know that I’m a true believer in the City of Utica. Not just a believer, but someone investing more than money into a city, its buildings and neighborhoods.

Downtown Utica, Hotel Utica specifically, was my first home when I located here in 1986. At that time it was called the Hunter House and offered housing to those attending the College of Technology. I walked and rode city buses taking classes at; Potter School, Mill Square, and the Globe Mill buildings. This was after attending Morrisville College and before that working on a Madison County farm for room and board.

Imagine a “farm boy”, with a technical/engineering appetite, arriving in the rough-n-tumble city, hearing tales of an old mill town that became the textile capital of the world! Then learning about the region’s “canal-loom-to-boom-to-bust” stories, landing in a “factory automation” job in Frankfort! Hearing more stories from 1st and 2nd shift factory workers, “Yeah, bands from Chicago use to come and play up-and-down the canal.” Countless stories of manufacturing might, our technical successes and our rich history. Well it all got me to a dreaming, saying to myself, “I’ll invent products and fill these old buildings back up. I’ll help make the area prosperous again!”

Many stories, twists and turns, but I’ve had success creating jobs and repairing old buildings. However for three years I’ve been sidetracked fighting a bad development plan for downtown. Will this battle continue, or can we end it sooner? Perhaps start a new chapter, for downtown and healthcare?

I’m taking steps to purchase two buildings in the Columbia Lafayette Neighborhood. I’m set on the private transaction, but need your help on the Jones Building. I’ll see to it these two buildings and the actions of other in “Better Utica Downtown” bring about a wonderful transformation to this neighborhood.

We’ll also help you see that St. Luke’s is annex into Utica and the City of Utica captures $300M for a wonderful new medical campus adjacent to the Utica Business Park and Utica College.

My offer for the Jones Building is $1,000 and no PILOT will be requested. I’ll need three years, but will gut and replace the roof and floors; we will add new high–quality windows and a first-class, historically appropriate facade within the first year. We will encourage and actively work to get others, whom have already shown interest, to invest in this neighborhood as well.

If you are amicable to this plan, we are prepared to execute the sale and begin redeveloping the Jones Building. It would be an absolute honor to support City Hall and work together to make Downtown Utica the region’s epicenter once again!

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Brett B. Truett


BetterUticaDowntown (BUD) Says: "You will see how the Columbia-Lafayette Neighborhood will be further developed to Become a more desirable place to do business, visit, and live. You'll learn how we will work with other Utica Neighborhoods to develop increased contentedness"



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