The Former Marketplace Mall Is Becoming a University of Rochester Medical Campus — What the New Clinic Means for Henrietta Families

The Marketplace Mall at 3400 West Henrietta Road has been working through its second act for a few years now, and the University of Rochester just filed the largest proposal yet. According to the Rochester Business Journal, UR is seeking final site plan approval from the Town of Henrietta Planning Board for a 172,000-square-foot outpatient clinic — a building that would bring specialist and developmental disability care to Monroe County's western suburbs and anchor a medical campus on the old retail site. The planning board had the proposal on its agenda for October 15.

What the New Clinic Will Offer — Specialists, Developmental Care, and More

What the New Clinic Will Offer — Specialists, Developmental Care, and More

The building divides into two distinct functions. One portion houses pediatric and adult medical specialists — the kind of subspecialty care that currently draws families from Greece, Gates, and Henrietta east to the Strong Memorial campus on Elmwood Avenue. The other portion is dedicated to the Golisano Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Institute, which provides services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

That combination in one suburban location is unusual. Families navigating ID/DD diagnoses typically coordinate care across multiple providers and separate locations — a pediatric specialist in one office, developmental services in another. A facility that brings both together, closer to where those families live, changes the practical math of getting consistent care.

The scale of the building — 172,000 square feet — signals the scope of UR's commitment to the Henrietta site.

Why Henrietta Is Becoming Rochester's Medical Hub

Why Henrietta Is Becoming Rochester's Medical Hub

The new clinic doesn't operate in isolation. It will connect physically to the Saunders Center for Orthopaedics and Physical Performance, which is already operating on the former mall site. It will also share a wall with the planned Mary Cariola Center, creating a campus of three adjacent facilities where a retail destination used to be.

That transition — from mall to cluster of care — has played out at former retail sites across the country. What distinguishes the Henrietta version is the specific combination: specialist medicine, developmental disability services, and orthopaedic care, all at one address with highway access and the surface parking that outpatient volumes require. The former mall footprint offers something the Elmwood Avenue campus can't easily replicate: room.

Anyone who has driven from the western suburbs to Elmwood Avenue for a specialist appointment knows the friction — the parking garage, the traffic, the two-hour round trip for a forty-five-minute visit. That friction falls hardest on families with children who have complex or chronic conditions, or adults with disabilities who rely on regular specialist care.

The Henrietta site is naturally closer to Greece, Gates, Chili, and the town of Henrietta than to the medical center campus. Bringing specialist and developmental disability care to that side of Monroe County addresses a gap those families have absorbed for years.

The Town of Henrietta Planning Board's vote on final site plan approval is the last formal step before construction timelines get real. UR Medicine has not announced a groundbreaking date, but a project of this scale doesn't appear before a planning board until it's ready to move.