Work begins at expected site of Utica multicultural center

The Utica OD reported about the Neighborhood Investment Association Work Party at 7 Rutger Park.

Though the NIA has not yet taken possession of the four-story, 30,000-square-foot, glass-façade building once occupied by the Teamsters, an outdoor cleanup took place Saturday to begin the site’s renovation.

“We wanted this almost to be an introduction to the neighborhood,” said Megan Fariello, public relations coordinator for the NIA.

So, as high-energy hip hop music blasted from speakers, members of the NIA, the Mohawk Valley Latino Association and volunteers from Colgate University swept, raked, pulled weeds and cleared brush for what is expected to become The Renaissance Center

Transforming the building into a multicultural center is one of the first major undertakings of the NIA, a nonprofit organization established about five years ago by a group of community advocates to address the needs of the Cornhill area.

Read more here. Plans call for a multicultural art and history museum, a video studio, a dance studio, a radio station, office space, a small business incubator, a boardroom, a banquet and ballroom, and a rooftop café.