Years in the making, but it looks like it might finally happen (from the Ithaca Times):
Quote:
Finger Lakes Wine Center hopes to draw tourists to Ithaca, wineries
Joseph Murtagh
Reporter
The Finger Lakes region is known for a lot of things: Agriculture, scenic beauty and, increasingly these days, its wine. While the Finger Lakes wine industry might not be as famous as its West Coast cousin, it's been garnering wider attention among wine enthusiasts for some years now, a reputation that's likely to increase with the opening of a new Wine Center in Ithaca this fall.
The Wine Center is a nonprofit that aims to support the region's wine industry. It will be located in a 3,300 square foot space in the lower level of the Cayuga Street parking garage, right across from the Holiday Inn. Construction is currently in progress, and the Wine Center is slated to open in late October, with a grand opening in November.
The possibility of opening up a Wine Center in Ithaca that would showcase the area's wineries has been talked about for years but is only now coming to fruition, said Executive Director Suzanne Lonergan, an Ithaca native with a background in marketing and communications who spent several years working in Boston before returning to Ithaca two years ago to run the Wine Center.
"Over the years, as the wine industry in the Finger Lakes continued to grow and it brought tourism to the area, people began thinking about creating a focus for the wine industry," said Lonergan. "About four years ago, the current board members got together, and they've worked tirelessly since then. The project had reached a point where each board member had played a role, securing funds, speaking to businesses, but they needed to pull it altogether, and that's where I came in."
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Suzanne Lonergan, executive director of the soon-to-be-opened Finger Lakes Wine Center on Cayuga Street, takes a moment from checking in on the construction work to pose for a photo outside of the building. (Photo by Rachel Philipson)
An artist's rendering of a conceptual design Ñby Joe Lamarre and Jason Otero of Art & Anthropology Ñ for one of the exhibits at the Finger Lakes Wine Center. (Image provided by Art & Anthropology)
The whole article:
http://www.ithacatimes.com/main.asp?...rticleID=12701