Work Begins on Former Parry's Building

RFH 2010, Featured Articles, Colgate News

Tue, Jul 26, 2011

Utica Street buildings gets a facelift as it prepares to host several businesses.

The large, brightly colored overhang that was a fixture on the front of the former Parry's building has a new look: it has been stripped down to its wooden studs.

This is the beginning for a makeover for the building that at one time in its life was a car dealership and formerly housed a restaurant, a Radio Shack and an ice cream parlor. The Hamilton Initiative, which bought the building to help Parry's relocate to the former Grand Union grocery store at the north edge of the village, hopes to redevelop it to house several businesses again.

The Initiative is the for-profit corporation created by Colgate's Board of Trustees to invest in the community.

Colgate officials say near term plans call for giving the front and back exteriors of the building face-lifts and recruiting several businesses to fill it. It has been discussed that the building could be used as an incubator to help spur the development of small businesses in the village.