Developers are moving forward with plans to develop a 5.5-acre tract on the Genesee River in Irondequoit for housing and commercial space. Lighthouse Pointe was proposed in 2007, but the town's Planning Board has just recently started reviewing the project. The recession contributed to the delay.

"This has been a long time coming," says Irondequoit Supervisor David Seeley.

The developers of Lighthouse Pointe want to combine residential and commercial space with the marina that's already on the site. And there would be public waterfront access via a park.

The park portion of the plan would require the City of Rochester to sell the project's consortium of investors an eight-acre lot adjacent to the Irondequoit property, says environmental attorney Alan Knauf, a partner in the project.

Right now, developers are seeking Irondequoit's approval for the project's first phase: three buildings containing 125 apartments, which would be located just south of the O'Rorke bridge. The smallest building would have residential space and 8,000 square feet of commercial space. The two other buildings would have four stories of residential space on top of a level of enclosed parking.

The condition of the site also contributed to the project's delay. It's a former landfill, and some cleanup work will be necessary before construction can begin.

The project's developer fought the State Department of Environmental Conservation to get the site into the state's brownfield program, which provides tax benefits and pollution liability waivers to the developer. A state appeals court ultimately ordered the agency to admit the site.

"We think it will be a real positive for the environment and the community," Knauf says of Lighthouse Pointe.