Main Street Commons Rochester: The Last Wall at 170 East Main Comes Down

The last wall of 170-172 East Main Street is coming down. Work started November 13, 2026, clearing the final remnant of a building that sat vacant for years at the center of a 600-foot superblock with no mid-block pedestrian crossing. When the rubble is gone, the site becomes the foundation for Main Street Commons, a pedestrian plaza that will change how people move through downtown Rochester.

What Main Street Commons Will Be for Downtown Rochester

What Main Street Commons Will Be for Downtown Rochester

The superblock between St. Paul Street and Clinton Avenue has no way through it on foot. You go around or you don't go. Main Street Commons cuts a pedestrian passthrough through the block, dividing the 600-foot stretch into two walkable urban lengths.

City Commissioner of Neighborhood and Business Development Erik Frisch described the project as "a central gathering space in the heart of this block, breaking up this super block of Main Street between St. Paul and Clinton Avenue." The design calls for outdoor dining, sidewalk cafes, and retail, restaurant, and commercial activation from the adjacent buildings. New York State's Downtown Revitalization Initiative awarded $1.3 million toward the project as part of a $10 million Rochester DRI package announced in December 2022 — one of five state-backed projects reshaping downtown. Construction is scheduled for 2028.

A Long History — and a Complicated Takedown

A Long History — and a Complicated Takedown

The building at 170-172 East Main Street started as a McDonald's in the 1980s and later became a Metro Market. It has been empty for years.

Demolishing it is not simple. The city paid $800,000 to acquire the property. The demolition contract — awarded to Ritter & Paratore Contracting of Utica — runs $1.5 million. The reason: the building shares walls and deep foundations with adjacent structures, requiring a piece-by-piece takedown that no machine can accomplish without taking the neighbors with it.

After demolition, geothermal wells will be installed beneath the site before the foundation is backfilled — not for the plaza itself, but to heat and cool the adjacent Kresge building once its own redevelopment begins.

The Block the Commons Is Unlocking

The Block the Commons Is Unlocking

The buildings flanking the demolition site are already moving. The Gateway building — just east of the site — is planned to include 132 apartments for low- and extremely low-income renters with ground-floor commercial space. Glass facade panels are coming off and original brick is reappearing.

Across East Main Street, the Kresge building is waiting on the commons before beginning its own redevelopment. Developer Patrick Dutton was direct about the dependency: "Several projects hinge on the start and completion of the commons. It's hugely important."

The three projects together represent roughly $80 million in combined investment. The staging area that sits there now is the last placeholder. When Main Street Commons opens in 2028, the site where a 1980s McDonald's stood will be a public plaza at the center of downtown Rochester.