New York State is not yet ready to say whether it will boost its commitment to a planned riverside Performing Arts Center in downtown Rochester.

Guest at the annual Rochester Downtown Development Corporation’s luncheon Wednesday discussed Mayor Lovely Warren’s proposed 3,000-seat theater, slated to be built on the site of the current Riverside Hotel.

It lost key support when Tom Golisano pulled $25 million he pledged to the project. Empire State Development would not say whether it will expand its commitment to make up for that lost funding.

"The level to which state support is needed for it to happen remains a question. It was a question even before when there were additional dollars that had presumably been secured for the theater," said ESD Finger Lakes Regional Director Vincent Esposito. "So that's a conversation with the mayor, with the developer right now. There is no commitment. That may be something the governor decides upon in his State of the State agenda." 

Esposito points to the ROC The Riverway initiative and its opening of the Genesee River corridor as the city's next big change for downtown Rochester.

Empire State Development has committed $50 million to the program.