IN THE NEWS

Work is scheduled to begin in March on a new $5 million-plus retail-office-residential development that will anchor a gateway to the village of Manlius.

The development, at the corner of Route 92 and Stickley Drive, will blend professional office space, luxury apartments, retail stores, a restaurant and a separate, new Key Bank. It will be called Madison Row.

A pair of two-story buildings, connected by an atrium, will feature retail shops and a 5,000-square-foot restaurant with outdoor seating available on the first floor. On the second floor, professional offices will be housed on one side, and six to eight one or two-bedroom lofts on the other side.

The project is designed with a New Urbanism style, a design philosophy that opposes suburban sprawl and instead emphasizes walkable communities.

“We are really excited about this project,” said Manlius Mayor Mark-Paul Serafin. “Our goal in the village is to increase walkability and the quality of life for residents, and this does that. It’s a little slice of what’s happening in the Armory district, and it’s wonderful for us. It will set the bar for everything else in the village that comes after this.”

The Manlius Village Planning Board is reviewing engineering and site plan details, and is expected to approve the site plan in the next few weeks. The next step is to secure demolition permits for the six homes along Route 92 acquired by the developer, so they can be torn down in March.

Work on the four-acre site will start right after that, said developer Michael Dougherty, of Mayflower Associates. Construction of the 4,000-square-foot Key Bank will begin in June, and the bank is slated to open in October.

The second phase of the project, the two 16,000-square-foot attached buildings, will begin six to nine months after bank construction begins, and likely open in spring 2012, Dougherty said.