ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Innovation Square is coming to Downtown Rochester.

The new project from Rochester-based Gallina Development will transform the site of the former Xerox Tower into a home for college students.

Evan Gallina, the Senior Project Manager for Gallina Development, discussed the vision behind Innovation Square during our Greater Rochester Enterprise Why ROC conversation Wednesday during News 8 at Sunrise.

“Innovation Square is a collaborative campus in the heart of downtown in which students from multiple universities can live, learn, and innovate,” Gallina said. “It is our goal with this project to provide a dense student population in our center city in an effort to grow our economic ecosystem.”

Gallina said Innovation Square will cover an entire city block, including a 30-story high-rise building, a 750 person auditorium, a small out-parcel building, and a full parking garage underneath. Housing will be a key component of the planned development. “This is not a traditional housing project,” he explained. “This is housing geared at upperclassmen and graduate students of local higher education institutions. So this project provides students a unique opportunity to get involved downtown, have direct access to internships, cultural attractions, and entertainment. Innovation Square will have a bountiful amount of traditional amenities, but the true differentiation is the ability to bridge the gap between the collegiate talent and local businesses.”

Innovation Square is part of a renaissance in Downtown Rochester that Gallina Development is excited to support. “First and foremost, we see the opportunity here,” said Gallina. “We’re Rochesterians through and through, born and raised here, and we want to see our city on the map. For so many years you saw the Kodaks and Xerox getting smaller and smaller and the way that we need to change that is by stepping up and doing something great in our city. We’re very bullish on Downtown based on the trends we see. We look at all of the housing development, we look at companies coming back to the city from their suburban locations and we truly believe that for our region to thrive we need a strong urban core in which folks can live, work, and play.”

Gallina said Innovation Square will have a phased opening beginning this coming fall. “We’ll have 140 beds available for students to live in – that’s the first five floors of student housing – along with all of our amenity package and our redesigned site. Phase two will be online the following year, so fall of ’22, and that will be a total of 500 student beds, multiple office floors available for rent, and – of course – our continued amenity package.”

There is more information online at InnovationSquareROC.com.

For more on Greater Rochester Enterprise visit RochesterBiz.com.