Could Binghamton’s Loft Dwellers Be a Model For Downtown Utica Living?
It's been a dream of some city planners and developers: Bring residental housing units back to downtown Utica. And there has been advancement in the last few years with a renewed vigor of activity that could bring lofts and condos to Baggs Square near Union Station. It's working in one upstate New York city - Binghamton is seeing a downtown residential renaissance.
The Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton reports that young professionals, empty-nesters and college students have all brought vibrancy back to the southern Tier city's downtown core.
Two 20-something professionals, Jenna Domin and Jared Moore, can't imagine living anywhere else.
Above SEFCU on Court Street, a colorful world is constantly on the move outside their tall front windows, which look out over one of the city's busiest streets. Trucks rumble by, a kaleidoscopeof people swirl past on the sidewalks, day and night.
"I like everything about living downtown," said Domin, 28. "The energy — and the people."
Domin and Moore, 26, moved in a little more than a year ago with their two cats, giving up an apartment in Endicott for an urban lifestyle. Moore, an engineer at McFarland Johnson in the Metrocenter, walks to work.
Would Binghamton's model work for Utica?
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