September 12, 2026

Hey, it's Khem, still only Khem in the world.

Labor and Wages Nearly 2,000 workers across the University of Rochester and URMC extend their contract deadline to September 26 at the region's largest employer.

AI Infrastructure The former Greenidge plant on Seneca Lake advances its conversion to AI computing, with 260 additional megawatts under application and state rules still unsettled.

Historic Property Transition A judge clears foreclosure on the Hungerford Building, releases former tenants from liability, and sends a $10.5 million claim toward sale.

Property Tax Relief Monroe County signs a 50 percent primary residence exemption for surviving spouses of officers killed in the line of duty.

Waterfront Investment Geneva breaks ground on $1.67 million of Long Pier and marina work, fourteen years after the feasibility study.

Two unions representing workers across the University of Rochester and its medical network agreed to extend their contract rather than let it expire, moving the deadline from Saturday, September 5 to September 26.

The unions are 1199SEIU, covering patient care technicians, nursing assistants, cooks and medical transporters, and SEIU Local 200 United, covering building and dining services, porters, library attendants and drivers. Talks opened August 6, and additional bargaining sessions are on the calendar. (WHEC News 10, Rochester Beacon)

Contract Signals

Over 2,000 workers across two SEIU locals

Original expiration September 5, extended deadline September 26

Negotiations opened August 6, a three week extension now in place

Core issues are health insurance affordability, wages, recruitment and retention

Four additional bargaining sessions scheduled

No wage figures released publicly by either side

Context: 1,800 workers held a one day walkout at URMC in December 2023 (Rochester Beacon)

Why This Employer Specifically

One detail matters more than the rest here.

The University of Rochester, including URMC and Strong Memorial, is the largest employer in this region. It is not one company among many. It is the wage benchmark that healthcare, food service and building services employers across Monroe County have to compete against when they post a job.

Why It Matters

This is not an abstract labor story.

When 2,000 workers at the region's biggest payroll negotiate health insurance costs and wages, the settlement sets a floor. Other local employers either match it over the following year or lose staff to it. The same negotiation also affects staffing levels at the hospital most families in this county actually use.

What Makes It Strategic

The unions are framing this entirely around affordability, specifically insurance costs and the difficulty of recruiting and keeping staff.

That is the same pressure showing up in nearly every hiring conversation in Rochester right now, from nursing to the skilled trades. An extension is not a settlement, and the December 2023 walkout is recent enough that both sides know what the alternative looks like.

Khem's Take

I watch this one because payroll at Strong is payroll in half the neighborhoods I work in.

When the region's largest employer raises wages, mortgage pre-approvals follow. Not immediately, usually about a year later, and you see it most clearly in Irondequoit, Gates and the city's east side.

Watch September 26. That date, not this week's extension, is the story.

The Dresden power plant on Seneca Lake, known for years as Greenidge and renamed Vulcan Infrastructure and Power in July, is converting from bitcoin mining to a hyperscale AI and high performance computing data center.

New reporting this week laid out where the project actually stands: what it draws from the grid today, what it has asked for, what it takes from the lake, and where state rules currently sit. (Rochester Beacon)

Project Signals

104 megawatts of energized capacity today on a 262 acre site

Two applications pending with the state grid operator, for 60 and 200 additional megawatts

The 200 megawatt request remains under study and is not approved

Company materials point to expansion in the third quarter of 2027

Permit allows withdrawal of up to 139 million gallons of water per day

Actual withdrawals averaged 89 million gallons per day in 2024

210 jobs supported in New York, per the company

$17.3 million coal landfill liability reported in 2026 SEC filings

Renamed from Greenidge to Vulcan Infrastructure and Power, Nasdaq ticker changed July 24

Owned by private equity firm Atlas Holdings (Rochester Beacon, Data Center Dynamics)

The Scale of the Energy Question

A one year state pause on new hyperscale data center permits took effect in July, and a broader bill covering large facilities has not been acted on.

That leaves the sequencing genuinely unresolved. The company has applications in front of the grid operator for capacity that would roughly triple what the site draws today, while the rules that would govern a facility that size are still being written.

Why It Matters for Rochester

Two reasons, both practical rather than philosophical.

First, electricity. Facilities at this scale buy power in quantities that show up in regional supply and, eventually, in what households pay per kilowatt hour.

Second, the lake. Seneca Lake anchors a tourism economy that a great many Monroe and Ontario County families spend their summers and their money in. Water withdrawal at 89 million gallons a day is a number worth understanding rather than ignoring.

What Makes It Consequential

This is the template case for the next decade of upstate development.

There is a separate large data center planned at the STAMP site in Genesee County, and the question both projects raise is identical: does a facility that consumes a great deal of power and water while employing a few hundred people net out as a gain for the community around it?

How Dresden resolves will shape how Genesee County, Monroe County and every other municipality in this region handles the next proposal that arrives.

Khem's Take

I don't think the real question is whether AI infrastructure is coming here. Computing demand is clearly growing and this region has the industrial power infrastructure to host it.

The better question is what kind of development actually pays a community back.

A project consuming enormous electricity while creating relatively few permanent jobs deserves different scrutiny than a manufacturing facility employing engineers, technicians and local suppliers. Those are not the same thing, even when both get announced as a technology investment.

Electricity and water are the two lines I watch, because both eventually reach a homeowner's monthly bill.97-STORY SKYSCRAPER PROPOSAL INTRODUCED AS LONG-TERM VISION FOR ROCHESTER SKYLINE (TORCH BUILD)

A proposal for a 97-story skyscraper in Rochester has been introduced, representing one of the most ambitious development concepts in the city’s history.

Development Signals

High-rise mixed-use concept
Potential residential, commercial and hospitality components
Aims to redefine Rochester skyline and urban density

Why It Matters

While still conceptual, projects like this signal investor interest and long-term confidence in urban growth potential.

What Makes It Transformational

Even early-stage proposals influence perception. Large-scale vertical development introduces the idea of higher-density urban living and future downtown demand expansion.

A State Supreme Court judge denied the owner's challenge and allowed foreclosure on the Hungerford Building to proceed.

In the same ruling, the judge removed every former tenant from the defendant list, clearing them of financial liability in the case. (WXXI News)

Property Signals

$8.2 million mortgage taken in 2022

Nearly $10.5 million now claimed as owed

36 open code violations, including leaking pipes, uninspected elevators and broken doors

Built in 1900 by J. Hungerford Smith to manufacture soda syrups and confections

Once held more than 100 artist studios

Fewer than 15 artists remain, many planning to relocate

All former tenants released from financial liability

Foreclosure now headed toward sale, with no timeline published (WXXI News, New York Daily Record)

The History Matters

This is not an ordinary distressed commercial property.

The Hungerford has been one of the anchors of Rochester's arts economy for decades and one of the more visible pieces of the city's industrial reuse story. A building that held over 100 studios is down to fewer than 15 occupants in four years.

Why It Matters

Foreclosure clearing court means the building is headed toward a sale.

That is the first real opportunity since 2022 for the Hungerford to get an owner with both the capital and the intent to actually fix it. Thirty six code violations do not resolve themselves through a change in management.

What Makes It Critical

This is the part of Rochester's development picture that never produces a groundbreaking photograph.

Large old industrial buildings here get bought, overleveraged, neglected, and then have to be rescued. Watch who buys it. An out of town speculator and a local developer with an actual leasing plan produce completely different outcomes for that stretch of East Main, and that answer moves property values and foot traffic on the surrounding blocks.

Khem's Take

Getting former tenants released from liability is the humane part of this ruling and it is not getting enough attention. Those are working artists who were not responsible for the mortgage.

The real story starts at the sale. A building like that either comes back as a neighborhood asset or sits dark for another five years, and the buyer decides which.

County Executive Adam Bello signed a local law providing a 50 percent property tax exemption on a primary residence to surviving spouses of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

The county legislature passed it unanimously on August 11. New York authorized municipalities to offer this exemption earlier in 2026, and Monroe County is now taking it up. (WXXI News, Monroe County)

Exemption Signals

50 percent exemption on county property taxes

Applies to a primary residence only

Eligible: surviving spouses of officers who died in the line of duty

Passed unanimously by the county legislature August 11

Signed by the county executive September 10

Enabled by 2026 state legislation authorizing municipalities to adopt it

Effective date not specified in available coverage

Number of qualifying households not published (WXXI News)

Housing Impact

A small number of households, and real money on a primary residence every single year.

The more useful point for everyone reading this is the mechanism. Property tax exemptions in New York are almost never applied automatically. Somebody has to file. If you know a family this applies to, that filing is the entire difference.

Why It Matters

New York has been steadily handing municipalities more authority to create local property tax exemptions, and counties are increasingly taking that authority up.

Every exemption shifts a small share of the levy onto everyone else. That is the quiet mechanism behind why a tax bill moves in a year when an assessment did not.

What Makes It Practical

This is the rare story in a newsletter like this that somebody can act on inside a week.

Exemptions are use it or lose it. There is no retroactive credit for a year you qualified and did not file.

Khem's Take

I run into homeowners every single year who qualified for something for a decade and never filed for it. Veteran status, senior exemptions, STAR, and now this one.

If anything has changed in your household, a death, a birthday, a service record, call the assessor. It is a fifteen minute phone call that occasionally turns into a few thousand dollars.

Geneva held a ceremonial groundbreaking on Long Pier and its marina along Seneca Lake, beginning work that replaces aging docks, adds an accessible kayak launch, repairs the bulkhead and stabilizes the pier itself.

The feasibility study for this work dates to 2012. The state award that funds it came in 2016. (FingerLakes1, WHEC News 10)

Project Signals

$1.674 million total project cost

$750,000 from Geneva's Downtown Revitalization Initiative award

$924,000 from the state Local Waterfront Revitalization Program

3,440 square feet of new floating docks

Approximately 12,400 square feet of Long Pier stabilization and repair

New accessible floating kayak launch

Gangway connecting the existing fixed platform to the new floating docks

Fixed bulkhead repairs and pedestrian crossing safety upgrades

Feasibility study began 2012, state award 2016, groundbreaking September 2026

No completion date published (FingerLakes1, WHEC News 10, 13WHAM)

Why It Matters for Rochester

Geneva is roughly 45 minutes out, and it is where a significant number of Monroe and Ontario County families spend their summer weekends.

An accessible kayak launch and working docks are the difference between a waterfront people drive past and a waterfront people actually use. Public access is what turns a lake into an amenity.

What Makes It Part of a Pattern

This is the visible end of a decade of state waterfront money working through small Finger Lakes cities.

Geneva, Canandaigua and Seneca Falls have all been pulling on the same programs. The towns that finish these projects are the ones now seeing housing demand from Rochester area buyers who want lake access without lakefront Monroe County taxes.

Khem's Take

Fourteen years from feasibility study to groundbreaking is the honest timeline for public waterfront work in New York.

I say that out loud because people ask me why a project near them is taking so long, and the truthful answer is that this is normal, not dysfunction. The money moves in stages and each stage has its own approval.

If you are looking at Ontario County, these finished waterfront projects are a real factor in the next five years of value there.

Homeowners

The property tax exemption is the one item you can act on this week, and the broader reminder is that exemptions in New York require a filing. If anything changed in your household, veteran status, age, a death in the family, call the assessor. On values, the most recent verified county figure remains the June report showing a Monroe County median above $300,000, up nearly 8 percent year over year, with closed sales down more than 17 percent. Tight supply, not surging demand, is doing most of the work on that price. (WHEC News 10, June 26)

Home Buyers

Nothing this week loosens inventory. What is worth tracking is the University of Rochester contract, because wage movement at the region's largest employer changes what buyers can qualify for roughly a year out. In the Finger Lakes, Geneva and Canandaigua keep getting more usable while staying cheaper than lakefront Monroe County. If you are shopping the city, the Hungerford outcome is a genuine signal for the East Main corridor.

Investors

The Hungerford sale is the number to watch. A distressed 1900 industrial building carrying 36 open code violations and a roughly $10.5 million claim against an $8.2 million mortgage will clear at a price that tells you what the market actually thinks Rochester adaptive reuse is worth right now. On the other end of the scale, the data center question at Dresden and at STAMP is the medium term story for land values in Genesee and Yates counties and for what commercial power costs across this region.

Bottom Line

This looks like five unrelated stories, and they share one theme: nothing got settled this week, and everything got scheduled.

Wages at the region's largest employer land September 26. The Hungerford's next chapter lands at sale. The Dresden capacity question lands with the grid operator and the legislature. The Geneva waterfront lands whenever the pier work finishes.

The regions that grow well are not the ones with the most announcements. They are the ones that pay attention while the decisions are still open, which is exactly where all five of these currently sit.

Source Credits: WXXI News, Rochester Beacon, WHEC News 10, 13WHAM, FingerLakes1, Monroe County, New York Daily Record, Data Center Dynamics.

[Schedule a call]

See you next week,

Khem