CAZENOVIA — On Jan. 5, the Village of Cazenovia Board of Trustees was updated on the ongoing effort to redevelop the former Cazenovia College campus. On Dec. 19, 2025, the local team known as 9Fresh closed on the entire campus, with concurrent closings on the sales of portions of it to the Town of Cazenovia and Madison County. 9Fresh, which acquired the campus through Matta Fresca LLC, has proposed a range of residential, commercial, and public-facing uses designed to reintroduce activity, gathering, culture, and daily life to the main quad. In a community resource released in September 2025, 9Fresh stated the following goals: to secure the entire campus; develop a sustainable, derisked, transformative, and flexible business plan; and create a foundation for a future-forward, multi-use district that brings together innovation and business, living and leisure, and strong community integration. During the village board meeting, 9Fresh Founder Kate Brodock and 9Fresh partner Adam O’Neill reported on the team’s activity since the closing. “Our biggest thing is obviously that we got [the deal] over the line, which is fantastic,” said Brodock. “I think we’re all feeling liberated and excited to move forward and get things going. So, we’re all in sort of activation mode now.” All the campus properties are currently zoned for educational use. Therefore, any change of use will require rezoning. For the core campus and athletic campus, the village plans to use a Planned Development District process, which will include public hearings and require that all proposed uses for elements of the campus be identified in advance and tied to a specific site plan. The town has acquired the Jephson Campus to serve as its new town hall, and the county has purchased Reisman and Sigety Halls to address space issues on its main campus. In New York State, it is not guaranteed that a municipality undertaking a project within the boundaries of another municipality is automatically subject to the host community’s land use regulations. In anticipation of the county and town undertaking development projects within its borders, the village has passed formal resolutions requesting that both participate in formal zoning and site planning processes. “At this point, the village will begin to respond to the various property owners as they come in, whether it’s [through] site plan processes or zoning processes,” said Mayor Kurt Wheeler. “We will kind of address those on a sequential basis based on who comes to us first.” Brodock, who remains at the helm of 9Fresh and is focused primarily on the main quad and equine property, said that her team plans to have drafts for zoning and site plans for the main quad prepared for next month. “We’ll sort of coordinate in the interim as to whether that looks like a working session [with the village] or an official meeting,” she said. [We’ll] be in touch with the board on what makes the most sense in that realm.” Wheeler said that as 9Fresh provides draft language for its requested zoning and draft site plan maps, those working documents will be made publicly available on the village website and in the village office. He added that no decisions will be made during work sessions; such sessions will allow the village to ask “nitty-gritty questions” about specific aspects of the developers’ proposals and work through the details. “Anything that’s proposed for action by either the village board, which has the primary responsibility for the revised zoning, or the planning board, which has the primary responsibility for the site plan for the core campus, in this case, would be done at regularly scheduled meetings,” Wheeler said. “And all those things would be subject to public hearings before any approval. . . . We’ll try to be as open and transparent as we can. I think, based on everything that I’ve heard [through] the conversations that I’ve had with Kate and Adam, the uses that are being anticipated are nothing that are going to surprise anybody.” O’Neill, who is specifically focused on the athletic center and the Catherine Cummings Theatre, reported that there are no plans to tear down the athletic building and turn the parcel into something else. “It’s going to be an athletic center,” he said. “. . . A huge purpose-built facility in the heart of our community will be used for the purpose it was built for.” O’Neill shared that Cazenovia residents and surrounding communities have expressed great interest in reopening the pool and basketball courts and potentially installing interior turf in the upper court. “The demand for indoor turf is extraordinarily high,” he said. “And [we’re] speaking with people interested in taking on the management of the weight room and the yoga studio. [There have been] very exciting conversations, very promising conversations.” To learn more about 9Fresh, visit 9fresh.co. For inquiries related to the main quad and equine center properties, contact Brodock at [email protected]. For inquiries related to the athletic center and Catherine Cummings Theatre, contact O’Neill at [email protected]. The Village of Cazenovia Board of Trustees typically meets on the first Monday of each month at 7 p.m. in the village municipal building at 90 Albany St. For more information, visit villageofcazenoviany.gov. ...read more read less