The Syracuse Developments Thread (sans Destiny USA) [Archive]

Visiteur

Jul 8, 2006, 4:38 PM

Maybe some of you all have been to Syracuse, a city of 140,000 located some eighty miles east of Rochester. I just feel that, other than the Destiny Project (which will not be mentioned in this thread), Syracuse is underrepresented. So, here's some tidbits for you guys, in case you're interested (say yes, and validate my existence).

University Area
Institute of Human Performance Exspansion (550 Harrsion - $38 million)
*8-to-12 storey residence hall (working title: 619 Comstock Avenue), construction starting in Spring 2007 (completion apx. Aug. 2009)
http://www.chickweed.net/cnybj/pics/2007/0601/hall.jpg
*74,000-square-foot third building to be added to the current two-building S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications complex. Broke ground, 11/12/05, due for completion by spring 07'.
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/6213/skodakimages039ro4.jpg

http://img317.imageshack.us/img317/4991/0000792si5.jpg
http://lifesciences.syr.edu/about.html The new 220,000 sq, foot, six-storey life sciences buildings, beginning construction this year and opening in fall 08'.
http://www-hl.syr.edu/cas-pages/images/The%20College%20News/LifeSciences_off.jpg
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7294/skodakimages040zl5.jpg

Center of Excellence-site prep- constuction set for early 2007- early 2009
http://sumagazine.syr.edu/spring06/universityplace/images/coe.gif

SUNY ESF/ Upstate Medical Expansion (proposed)
http://www.upstate.edu/biocenter/gifs/building1.jpg

SUNY upstate- Setnor Academic Building (5 stories, UC)
http://www.upstate.edu/medalumni/academic_bldg/gifs/academic_bldg.jpg

Syracuse VA Spinal Cord Injry Center ($77 million- 6-story, 108,000 sq. ft addition UC)

Le Moyne College (Erie Corridor, East of downtown)-$27 million sciences complex

Temple Adath Yeshurun Conversion-22 to 24 condos- approved
http://www.syracusethenandnow.net/photogallery/photo11478/Temple_adath_yeshurun__color_2002.jpg

Maple Heights- 50 units, townhouse style, to replace abandoned public housing (proposed)

Hill Haven Redevelopment- 23 units (approved)

Downtown

Centro Main Bus Station (proposed)
http://www.syracuse.com/cgi-bin/prxy/photogalleries/nph-cache.cgi/cache=3000;/syr/images/3851/08.jpg

http://newkai.com/mt/archives/images/NewConventionHotel.jpg
16-storey 350-room Westin Hotel (approved-due to start in March 2007)

Syracuse Residential Initiative (SRI) Where House Appropriation Committee member James Walsh (R-NY) nets a couple million dollars annually to do stuff like this:
http://www.syracuse.ny.us/./images/content/hanoverSquare.jpg
Hanover Square Housing Project

Partially funding the Franklin Square Project- the other part being provided by Pyramid as a stipulation to build Carousel back in the late 80s-most recently completed, the O.M. Edwards Project in 2005.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/FranklinSquare1.jpg/300px-FranklinSquare1.jpg

SU Downtown Academic Building
IMG]http://img454.imageshack.us/img454/2638/0000769gw8.jpg[/IMG]

Amos Condo (completed) 19-units, grocery store on first floor:
http://www.syracusethenandnow.net/Dwntwn/ClintonSq/AmosBlock/Amos_Block.jpg

Firehouse #1 Condominiums (3 units, commercial retail space) complete
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/Firehouse_large.jpg

The Amos @ City Harbor- 47 upscale units in two four-storey bldgs, $9 million renovation

Dey Bros. Building Renovation - 22 units
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/6148/0001663bn2.jpg

Loew's Condos- 9-unit luxury condos
http://downtownsyracuse.com/images/photos/content84.jpg

Masonic Lofts-35 Units-UC
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/masonic_temple_before.jpg

Flagship Securities (6,000 sq. ft)- UC
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/flagship_large.jpg

Syracuse Trust Bank Conversion (retail, 4 luxury apartments)-UC
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/325%20Salina_large.jpg

Wilson Lofts- 33 Units-UC
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/Wilson_large.JPG

Jefferson-Clinton Commons (new 115,000 sq. ft four-storey building, replaces a surface lot)

Atrium Place -approved
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/Atrium%20Garage_large.JPG
After:
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/350%20Washington4_large.jpg

Symphony Place at Hotel Syracuse Square-54-unit condo tower, 100 aprtments, 150-room business hotel
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/SymphonyPlace_large.jpg

Vengeance Lofts-total restoration of ca. 1894 building into two large apartments and retail space- UC
October 2006-siding covering windows has been removed, further exterior renovations underway
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/233%20NClinton_large1.jpg

Butler Building-10 Units-UC
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/butler_building_before.jpg

http://downtownsyracuse.com/images/photos/listing353.jpg
311 Montgomery Street- 4-units

1212 E. Fayette- 14 units (apporved)

124 East Genesee- 8 Units-Complete
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/124_east_genesee_after.jpg

202 Walton- 7 Apartments, 4500 sq. ft office, retail component on first floor-complete
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/202%20Walton_large4.jpg

Bennett Building - 3 apartments, commerical space -UC
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/Bennett%20Warehouse_large.jpg

Lofts on Willow (215 E. Fayette)- 49 Units- complete
http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/img/gallery_imgs/lofts_on_willow_after2.jpg

Warren Street Parking Garage Exspansion- 500 spaces over seven floors, designed to fit in with neighboring buildings as much as possible. Approved, starting construction early 2007.
http://www.syracuse.com/flags/72/biz_061206_garage-drawing.jpg

300 South Geddes (Artists' Enclave)- 37 Units- UC
http://www.charous.com/uploads/5be8bb0870.jpg

Falcone Project- 6-to-14 floors (near "The Warehouse"), in design phases

435 N. Franklin (5 floors, 36 units, proposed)

Mizpah Towers conversion to an upscale Ramada (115 rooms)- Starting apx. 2/2007
http://www.syracusethenandnow.net/Dwntwn/Columbus/Mizpah/BridgesPhotos/MIZPAH-035A-Large.jpg

St. Joseph's Hospital Addition- 9 floors, parking garage/medical space on upper floors- UC (nearing completion)
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/7892/skodakimages036ks4.jpg

300 South Salina Street Redevelopment-three buildings (incl. Chamberlin Bldg, pictured), planned mixed use (proposed)
http://www.syracuse.com/flags/332/biz_070105_hb_chamberlin.jpg
Syracuse Enclave- 80 patio homes near Burnet Park, plus a mixed-use renovation of a mental institution (cost: $20-30 million)

whit_x

Jul 8, 2006, 5:14 PM

Nice to see that something else besides the Congol stranglehold is going on in Syracuse. Now if only Wilmorite hadn't sold their malls and instead decided to expand Shoppingtown.

Visiteur

Jul 9, 2006, 3:51 PM

True, Macerich isn't doing much for Shoppingtown, the only change they've tried to enstate is kicking out the Salvation Army at Christmastime.

Some more developments:

Children's Hospital (approved): a six-storey addition to the current University Hospital, including an overhanging facility nicknamed "The Treehouse". After a very generous donation from billionaire Tom Golisano, it has been renamed "The Golisano Children's Hospital".
http://www.syracuse.com/flags/175/ne_childhosp.jpg
(I'm guessing Tripod pictures won't work? This is the next best photo I can find.)

Hinsdale Road Development (suburb of Camillus-site prep)A mixed-use facility that includes retail, housing, and a 16-storey hotel portion. Not many details about this yet, although a fall 07' opening is in place. This sketch is a similar development by the company in Kansas City.
http://www.cameronllc.com/DisplayImage.aspx?type=P&id=1015

Normally, I wouldn't touch the 'burbs, but the county Syracuse is in (Onondaga) saw it's first net increase in population in 2004, the first time since 1969.

TomAuch

Jul 9, 2006, 8:34 PM

Peanut

Jul 10, 2006, 5:03 PM

The SU college of Business has really come a long way since i was back home last June

http://www.pbase.com/peanut2k4/image/29442791/large.jpg

Though i think im done taking pictures of Syracuse, i cant think of anything good to take. Ill just wait till i get back to hawaii.

Visiteur

Jul 12, 2006, 7:18 PM

"Put one foot in front of the other..."

The artist's rendering suggests they are trying to make this building look as attractive as possible. It looks like a school, if you don't notice the containers of excrement.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1152695271116760.xml&coll=1

Plan for $74M sewage plant in Syracuse advances
County Legislature panel OKs spending for property purchases, related expenses.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
By Mark Weiner
Staff writer
Onondaga County took a step forward Tuesday with plans to build a $74.1 million sewage treatment plant on the edge of the Armory Square district in downtown Syracuse.

A county Legislature committee approved spending $2.44 million to buy property and for related expenses needed to start the project one that is still opposed by Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll.

The money is to buy more than a dozen properties and easements for the plant and its underground pipelines, according to Onondaga County officials.

John Clare, project manager for the county Department of Water Environment Protection, said it would be premature to say how much money the county would offer to property owners.

"We haven't made an offer to any of them until we get this through the Legislature," Clare said.

A public hearing on the proposal is planned for 2:20 p.m. Aug. 1 at the Legislature chambers, 401 Montgomery St., Syracuse. The full Legislature still has to authorize spending the $2.44 million.

Under the plan, approved Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Committee, the county would buy land under 280 of the 700 parking spaces in the city-owned Trolley Lot. The outdoor lot, downtown's largest surface parking lot, is behind the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology.

Clare said county and city officials have not agreed on a sale price.

The county has promised to replace the 280 parking spaces with a new lot or garage elsewhere in Armory Square.

"We have some discussions under way with private developers, but it's probably premature to get into details," Clare said.

Besides selling the parking lot, the city will be asked to give the county an easement to allow construction of a sewage pipeline under and along the banks of Onondaga Creek.

County Executive Nicholas Pirro and Driscoll will have to work out the details for the transaction.

"It's on their list of things to get to," Clare said. "We're hoping to have all of the properties acquired by the end of the year."

Colleen Deacon, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said nothing has changed the city's opposition to the project.

The city maintains that the Armory Square business and entertainment district, which includes prime waterfront property along Onondaga Creek, is the wrong place to build a sewage treatment plant.

The plant would stop a combination of storm water and raw sewage from overflowing at 11 points into Onondaga Creek as it flows through downtown.

If the proposal is approved, the county would ask for bids to install the pipelines in January 2007, Clare said. Bids for construction would be requested in the summer of 2007. The goal for completing the project is fall 2009.

Mark Weiner can be reached at mweiner@syracuse.com or 470-2274.

Peanut

Jul 12, 2006, 8:37 PM

I cant see how this is gonna be good. Hopefully it wont stink up downtown.

Do you know if there is anyword on the Oncenter Hotel?

TomAuch

Jul 12, 2006, 9:11 PM

SU is also considering a new dorm building, but I'm not sure where they'll put it. Slocum Hall is also being renovated, which is why the School of Architecture is at the Warehouse.

Visiteur

Jul 13, 2006, 12:41 AM

Well, the OnCenter Hotel finally made it through the red tape, with the union construction wages and all, and it is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year, and open by 2008.

Also Peanut, I was wondering if you new about the Hotel Syracuse redevelopment...

(from Wikipedia/Syracuse Post-Standard 8/1/05, 12/8/05 Issues)
In August of 2005 an Israeli firm named GMUL, agreed to buy and renovate both the Hotel Syracuse and its garage into a new four star hotel and condos. More detailed plans became public during December of 2005, listing the following plans for the complex:

70 condominiums (including four penthouses) with a price range of $170,000 to $450,000
155-room business hotel
100 Apartments
Restoration of banquet facilities and street-level storefronts
Rehabilitation of the complex's parking garage
Pool and gym

The development was named Symphony Place, and featured an exstensive renovation of the newer tower (four columnesque pedestals on the rooftop corners of the building, and a fresh coat of paint), but I have only seen the renderings from news broadcasts.

Tom, I've also heard about the dorms, but if you see something or read some news that specifically refers to this issue, please let us know. :)

donybrx

Jul 13, 2006, 1:14 AM

SU is also considering a new dorm building, but I'm not sure where they'll put it. Slocum Hall is also being renovated, which is why the School of Architecture is at the Warehouse.

The mere mention of Slocum Hall sends a chill up my spine..BRRRRRRRRR... as I recall the all too many caffeine fueled all-nighters I pulled in that old building before ultimately coming to the decision to abandon architecture as my chosen field.....:)

TomAuch

Jul 13, 2006, 2:54 AM

The mere mention of Slocum Hall sends a chill up my spine..BRRRRRRRRR... as I recall the all too many caffeine fueled all-nighters I pulled in that old building before ultimately coming to the decision to abandon architecture as my chosen field.....:)
Do you still go to SU? If so, what's your major? BTW, it's WORSE now for Architecture students. They have the same routine, in addition to having to take the shuttle down to the warehouse.

Sulley

Jul 13, 2006, 2:59 AM

So, what's going on with that "Destiny" Project?

donybrx

Jul 13, 2006, 2:48 PM

Do you still go to SU? If so, what's your major? BTW, it's WORSE now for Architecture students. They have the same routine, in addition to having to take the shuttle down to the warehouse.

No. I'm not at SU. Let's just say that it's been more than a few 24's since I was there......and leave it at that for now......heh.....

It's very hard to imagine that things could be anything but worse at Slocum if it has remained untouched all this time. I remember it as very old but not very interesting, certainly not for housing a School of Architecture!
Maybe that was the problem with me..... yeah, that's the ticket...Slocum made me switch........and Morgan Fairchild...my wife......

Peanut

Jul 13, 2006, 7:49 PM

So, what's going on with that "Destiny" Project?

Hard to say, The Mayor and Pyramid have come up with a agreement but the Common Council didnt like it so they are pursuing a appeal against pyramid. I really hope they dont go through with it because it is gonna cost the city Millions...

TomAuch

Jul 13, 2006, 9:02 PM

Destiny USA seems to be a pyramid scheme (pun intended for the Pyramid Companies.) I've read about all the things that it's supposed to promise, and I seriously doubt that a city like Syracuse would benefit. It just seems like pork.

Peanut

Jul 13, 2006, 9:36 PM

I jus wanna see some type on construction in the City. Bygod the only thing that ever gets built around here is Civic projects like hospital expansions and Syracuse University building new stuff. I want to see a new Highrise! Even the smallest expansion of Destiny would build a new 40 story hotel. That i like!

Visiteur

Jul 14, 2006, 2:41 AM

Well Peanut, you can keep dreaming. I'm not even going to bother to mention any news on that project because it is trapped in red tape hell. and btw Peanut, the new plan shrank the hotel to a 38-story glass box.

TomAuch, Pyramid,COR Development and Pioneer Group are the three major commercial real estate players in the Syracuse market. When one fails at something, usually another one will opt to take the opprotunity. Pyramid is just boosting their image above the other two with DestiNY.

I have a friend that is going to SU for Architecture, so that little aside has me a little concerned for him. The good thing about SU today is that Nancy Cantor, the chancellor, wants to establish more ties with the city (how about a new dorm near the Presidential Towers?). However, they also want to increase enrollment while staying in the top 50 colleges in the country (case in point, they ARE #50, according to Newsweek). It's a balancing act.

TomAuch

Jul 15, 2006, 5:14 PM

Cantor's "Soul of Syracuse" theme is about the only thing that she's doing well. She isn't exactly a popular figure right now, what with her ordering the shutdown of SU's main student tv station last year and having Judicial Affairs harass students who make Facebook groups about lousy TA's. Mainwhile, crime is going up around campus (just this past school year, someone got robbed right near DellPlain Hall!), and you don't hear about her plans to deal with that.
Well Peanut, you can keep dreaming. I'm not even going to bother to mention any news on that project because it is trapped in red tape hell. and btw Peanut, the new plan shrank the hotel to a 38-story glass box.

TomAuch, Pyramid,COR Development and Pioneer Group are the three major commercial real estate players in the Syracuse market. When one fails at something, usually another one will opt to take the opprotunity. Pyramid is just boosting their image above the other two with DestiNY.

I have a friend that is going to SU for Architecture, so that little aside has me a little concerned for him. The good thing about SU today is that Nancy Cantor, the chancellor, wants to establish more ties with the city (how about a new dorm near the Presidential Towers?). However, they also want to increase enrollment while staying in the top 50 colleges in the country (case in point, they ARE #50, according to Newsweek). It's a balancing act.

Visiteur

Jul 15, 2006, 8:25 PM

Well, her Volvo was stolen the first week she was chancellor ;) .

Never a good sign...:sly:
http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-3/1152953851126210.xml&coll=1

About 150 jobs will be cut during the next few months at Nine Mile Point nuclear station as owner Constellation Energy strives to make the two reactors more profitable, according to company officials and the union representing plant workers.

The job cuts a combination of early retirements and layoffs will reduce the work force from roughly 1,100 to 938, said officials at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 97.

As recently as six weeks ago, the union protested to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the pending job cuts would "sacrifice the safe and reliable operation" of the plants. But many of the union's concerns about safety were later resolved during contract negotiations, which concluded June 23, said David Falletta, president of Local 97.

Among other things, the company scaled back plans to use outside contractors and established a labor-management committee to assess job cuts and how they affect operations, Falletta said.

"We're not happy, but we're going to have to try this," Falletta said. "And then we'll be making recommendations to management about how it's operating."

Union officials said the company might have to cut more than 200 jobs to reach its goal.

But Maria Hudson, speaking for Constellation Energy, said the company expects to elimi-

nate approximately 150 jobs by the end of the year.

In any case, reducing the work force to 938 people - the number targeted in Constellation's 2006 business plan, according to union leaders - will make the facility far leaner than it has been in recent years.

Nine Mile Point had 1,330 employees when Constellation acquired it in 2001. As recently as 2005, the facility had about 1,200 employees.

And in other news...

BOB NIEDT
RETAIL NOTEBOOK
It looks as though Starbucks is heading into Carousel Center.

The coffee cafe giant has landed several dozen Barnie's Coffee & Tea Co. locations, including Carousel Center's, and will be retrofitting the stores, as well as retaining Barnie's employees, who have spoken with Starbucks reps.

While Barnie's has its core of loyal followers, the Starbucks name should bring even more traffic to the mall's food court, where Barnie's sits.

Carousel Center management couldn't confirm the Starbucks move, but it's imminent. No timetable has been released.

Also at Carousel Center, at the edge of the food court, the expansion of Hannoush Jewelers should begin soon, as the store takes on the former Lids location next to the new Verizon Wireless store, plus some space on the other side of the store, said Rob Schoeneck, Carousel Center's general manager.

"If you look at the mall from the carousel out, we've had a mini-remix over the last few years," said Schoeneck. "Where we had Easy Spirit, Barnie's, Hannoush, Lids, Electronics Boutique, Nine West as tenants around 1990-95, we now have Coach, the coming expanded Hannoush, the new in-line Verizon Wireless store where they can service your phone, the beautiful J.B. Robinson store, Apple and the Swarovski Gallery Store. It's not quite like what we did in 2000 with H&M, but it's big."

Speaking of H&M, down that way, on the first level, SelectComfort mattress returns to the mall, taking over some of the former Guess space.

Also right there, the Verizon Wireless kiosk that's on the second level will drop straight down a level on Sunday night, relocating to the first level. It should be open for biz Monday morning.

Heartache in a name

You knew it as Union Square Cafe. Scratch that. The lawyers have stepped in and the cafe, at 238 Harrison St. in downtown Syracuse, now goes by the name The Ale 'n Angus Pub (see www.alenanguspub.com)

"It's been a nightmare, but the sign just went up on the building yesterday, and we have all the new signage, menus, business cards, Web site, everything," said Randy Beach, whose family owns the pub, near the Oncenter and War Memorial. "We've been pulling our hair out."

The hair-pulling started when they heard in May from some high-priced lawyers in Chicago, hired by a tavern in New York City that owned the name say it with me Union Square Cafe.

When the Beach family opened their Union Square Cafe in Syracuse a year ago, their lawyer did a local search on the name, but not a national search, said Randy.

So eventually, the folks at Union Square Cafe in New York City found out and felt that there might be some confusion on the part of potential customers. Perhaps some lost soul might end up going to the Union Square Cafe in Syracuse, when they meant to go to New York City.

You can't make this stuff up.

"In several communications back and forth with the law firm, it was determined we had to do a cease and desist with the name by July 1," said Randy.

That's what they did. And?

"We did hire a new lawyer," said Randy. "One of our patrons, actually. They did a national search, tore the name apart and we're good. So we're up and going and all our regular patrons have accepted the name change. They feel sorry for us because it's the little guy caught in the big corporate world."

Coffee and ice cream, to go

Drive-Thru Joe? Sure. How about "drive-thru" ice cream, too?

It's what you get at Auburn's Drive-Thru Joe, a coffee shop that was hauled on a crane and flatbed from its old location to its current spot, in Grant Avenue Plaza on Route 5.

The shop is owned by Marianne and Greg Myers, who got to be the owners through their daughter, Jenna. Jenna, says Marianne, worked for the former owners for four years until, lo and behold, mom and dad bought the shop.

It got moved a mile-and-a-half east up Route 5 to make way for Walgreens.

"It started out as a drive-thru coffee shop, then an espresso machine got added, then ice cream and slushies," notes Marianne. "Anyway, it took on a life of its own. Last August, we were forced to move from our original location to make way for Walgreens."

It's worked out.

They've added ice cream, including Byrne Dairy soft serve, to the menu, which includes Paul de Lima Prestige Blend coffee, along with iced coffee and lattes, iced teas, frappuccinos and baked goods from Syracuse's Pascale's Bakehouse. And if you don't want to do the drive-through , enjoy the picnic table.

Store Front also runs Sunday and Wednesday in The Post-Standard. Contact Bob Niedt at bniedt@syracuse.com.

Visiteur

Jul 17, 2006, 1:53 AM

Local residential real estate sales...for better or for worse, you decide.

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-3/1152868295304410.xml&coll=1&thispage=2

Sales ebb, but not for all

Home sales in Central New York continue to fall off the record pace set in 2005, reflecting an expected return to more normal levels, according to May statistics published by the New York State Association of Realtors.

There were 612 houses sold during May in Onondaga, Cayuga, Madison and Oswego counties. That's a decrease of 3.8 percent from the 636 sales in May 2005.

Statewide, sales declined 2.1 percent.

Locally, the slowdown has been most noticeable in Onondaga County. During the first five months of this year, there were 1,584 transactions in Onondaga County, compared with 1,710 in 2005 a 7.4 percent decline.

Still, Realtors say the market is humming along at a healthy level. And in some areas, Realtors are just as busy as they were last year, or more so.

"The market definitely has not slowed down," said Dee Burlingame Casale, who manages the DeWitt office of Prudential First Properties. "We have never, ever, ever been busier. We are far past last year, and far past the year before."

Which goes to show: Always take statistics with a measure of salt.

JManc

Jul 17, 2006, 3:58 AM

visiteur, you live in 'cuse? i am originally from the vibrant and beautiful metropolis 50 miles to the east; utica.

good to see projects moving forward up there.

Peanut

Jul 17, 2006, 4:37 AM

I was wondering something the other day. If the Syracuse Metro keeps on growing but the city keeps on shrinking, what would the fate of syracuse be? Its strange to think about but the suburb of Clay could become larger than the city of syracuse if the City keeps on losing population.

Visiteur

Jul 17, 2006, 8:12 PM

Yes jmancuso, I grew up just outside of Syracuse. So, did you live in Utica back in the good ol' days? At leats they have a retro McDonald's... but, I'll admit there's more to Utica than that- they have a great park out there (Proctor) and some great long-distance running competitions (Boilermaker, E.J. Hermann, etc.).

Funny you mention that Peanut. Clay (2000 pop. 58,805 -2005 est. 59,300) is, for those that don't know, the largest Syracuse suburb. It has seen large-scale growth in recent years (shopping centers, subdivisions, stand-alone retail, small-scale office and industry), and has more in store for it, as indicated by this recent article in the Post-Standard:

http://www.syracuse.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-2/1150966771202800.xml

Clay looks at Rte. 31 proposals
On table: Wal-Mart Supercenter, housing, Lowe's, restaurants.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
By John Doherty
Staff writer
Clay councilors have begun reviewing four projects that would bring more than 700 new homes, a Wal-Mart Supercenter, a Lowe's Home Improvement store and several restaurants, shops and businesses to a half-mile stretch of Route 31.

The town board Monday heard from three developers who have plans for 200 vacant acres between Moyers Corners and the COR Plaza on Route 31. The four projects need zone changes before final plans are drawn and work begins.

In each case, councilors say they are concerned about increased traffic, drainage and architecture issues. Their review could take most of the summer, Clay Supervisor Mark Rupprecht said.

Although the projects were reviewed during public hearings, they prompted little public response during Monday's meeting.

The projects also are being reviewed by Clay's planning board.

Here's a look at the four projects.

Wal-Mart Supercenter: Buffalo-area developer Ron Bronstein

wants to build a 50-acre shopping plaza at the northeast corner of Routes 57 and 31. The plaza's anchor store would be a 200,000-square-foot Supercenter that would replace Wal-Mart's smaller store on Route 31.

The plaza also would include several smaller stores and restaurants.

Councilor Robert Edick said he is especially concerned that the new Wal-Mart be appealing and have a superior design.

"The Wal-Mart store is a pretty ugly store, including the one in Cicero," Edick said. "I've got pictures of Wal-Marts down in Miami and you can't tell they're Wal-Marts."

"We want to see the same level of investment that you've done in other communities, not just a cookie-cutter approach," Rupprecht said.

Wal-Mart representative Thomas Farlow said Wal-Mart wants a store tailored for Clay.

"They want to design something that is specific to Clay," Farlow said.

The Supercenter would employ 350 to 400 workers, Farlow said. The current store has about 150 workers.

Once the Supercenter opens, the current Wal-Mart, the first opened in Onondaga County, would be sold, Farlow said.

Lowe's Home Improvement: COR Development officials told councilors they want to build a shopping center on the south side of Route 31 on 22 acres opposite the COR Plaza.

The 138,000-square-foot Lowe's would be the new plaza's anchor store. The center also would include a 6,300-square-foot restaurant and 45,000 square feet of other retail.

Edick also called for the project to have a quality design geared for Clay.

"I don't want to see a Lowe's like Cicero has with big blue signs," Edick said. "Make it nice. We're not second-class."

COR tried to get town board approval to develop the site last year. Councilors rejected the plan for several reasons, including the additional traffic the shopping center would draw.

The site is zoned for apartments. COR officials hope councilors will reconsider if apartments are built in a commercial area across Route 31 behind COR Plaza.

Apartments: If councilors agree to allow commercial development opposite the COR Plaza, COR plans to build a 475-unit apartment complex on 76 acres behind the COR Plaza. Much of the area is already zoned for commercial use.

Developers argue that the apartments would generate more traffic than the Lowe's plaza and moving them to the north site would reduce traffic along Route 31.

Councilor Clarence Rycraft said he is concerned about the power transmission lines near the proposed apartments and doubted swapping the projects would reduce traffic enough to get councilors to reconsider their opposition to commercial development on the south side of Route 31.

"I don't see that balancing the traffic would change any minds," Rycraft said.

Condominiums: Albany-based Amedore Homes wants to build a condominium development of between 250 and 300 homes, on 50 acres adjacent to the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter.

The project is the company's first venture in Central New York.

Geared toward the older, so-called empty nesters, the project would include private roads, sidewalks, walking trails and maintenance service.

Several councilors said they are concerned that the project may not have enough parking for residents and their guests.

"Where are we going to put these cars? That's an answer we'll be looking for," Rycraft said.

John Doherty can be reached at jdoherty@syracuse.com or 470-2249.

© 2006 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.

If anyone wants to see further details of the developments, just go to the planning board at http://www.townofclay.org

Visiteur

Jul 19, 2006, 4:12 PM

I worry this will happen in current subdivisions someday...:rolleyes:

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/city/index.ssf?/base/news-2/115312701161300.xml

Syracuse's Strathmore section named historic site
Three-year effort pays off as "By the Park" portion makes national register.
Monday, July 17, 2006
By Mike Fish
Staff writer

After three years of work, neighborhood leaders in Syracuse's Strathmore neighborhood Tuesday will receive a certificate designating the core of their neighborhood as part of the National Register of Historic Places.

During a ceremony scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Pops in the Park Concert at Onondaga Park, Tony Opalka, a state official who is the National Register's representative for Onondaga County, will present a certificate designating the Strathmore "By the Park" area on the National Register of Historic Places.

The neighborhood, which has about 203 homes, is a distinctive example of an early 20th-century residential subdivision and remains a well-preserved representation of early 20th-century landscape architectural design.

The Strathmore "By the Park" subdivision opened in 1919, in the area immediately southwest of Upper Onondaga Park, centered on Strathmore and Charmouth drives.

Some of the homes were designed by well-known architects, such as Ward Wellington Ward and Merton E. Granger.

The National Park Service Friday placed this section of the Strathmore neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places, Opalka said.

That area, which is the core part of the Greater Strathmore neighborhood, was placed on the state Register of Historic Places in April, Opalka said.

"The idea of this subdivision was to take advantage of the views and the topography, so the streets curve and match the hills," Opalka said. "It was very much contrived to fit into the landscape."

The Greater Strathmore Neighborhood Association's Historic Designation Committee led by Sarah Ioele, Dennis Connors, Diana Hogue and Nancy Wolcott, along with the help of many others, have been working on this effort for more than three years.

"You always wonder, can we accomplish these things?" Ioele said Friday. "You just have to be a little patient."

Opalka said the designation lends a certain prestige to an area.

"It's recognition of the importance of your area in the history of the community," he said.

And in a more tangible sense, the designations on the state and national registers give the neighborhood an added layer of protection when it comes to state or federal plans to widen roads, rehabilitate properties or engage in other public works that involve state and federal money.

The Strathmore "By the Park" neighborhood is one of three parts of the Greater Strathmore neighborhood, Ioele said.

She said neighborhood leaders in the next couple of years will try to get historic designations for the other two sections, the Onondaga Highlands and the upper part of Robineau Road.

The Onondaga Highlands section includes Summit Avenue and Ruskin Avenue, which in June hosted the sixth annual "Art on the Porches" Art Show and Street Festival.

Listing on the National Register does not interfere with a property owner's right to remodel, alter, manage, sell or even demolish a property when using private money.

Opalka said there are about 75 properties or groups of properties in Syracuse listed on the national and state historic registers, including part of North Salina Street, the Hawley-Green neighborhood, Berkeley Park, Armory Square and Hanover Square.

Visiteur

Jul 22, 2006, 5:06 PM

Yes Virginia, believe...

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-4/1153472280168560.xml&coll=1

'Still Adding Jobs'
Friday, July 21, 2006
By Rick Moriarty
Staff writer
Job growth in the Syracuse area was one of the highest in the state in June, the state Department of Labor said Thursday.

Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties had 3,900 more jobs in June than they did in the same month last year.

It represented a 1.2 percent gain in jobs, the third-highest among the state's 14 metropolitan areas. Only New York City (1.6 percent) and Kingston (1.5 percent) have higher growth rates.

The Syracuse area's unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in June, the lowest jobless rate in June since 2001, when it hit 4.1 percent. The rate in June matched the unemployment rate in May and was down from 4.9 percent in June 2005.

Syracuse's rate matched the state's jobless rate last month and was lower than the national unemployment rate, 4.8 percent.

"We're still adding jobs locally, and our unemployment rate has declined," said Karen Knapik-Scalzo, an economist at the Labor Department's Syracuse office. "This is our strongest local economy since 2001."

Driving the local job market is growth in several industry sectors.

While the private sector accounted for most of the new jobs, government employment also rose. There were 1,200 more government jobs in June compared with the same month last year.

Knapik-Scalzo said most of the increase in government jobs occurred in local school districts and state colleges. Both private and public schools are seeing increases in enrollments as people go back to school for training in new technologies, she said.

Manufacturing, which had been holding relatively steady in recent months, lost 400 jobs. But that was far less than the factory job losses the area had been seeing in recent years.

The manufacturing sector's job count was affected by a strike by the 78 members of United Steelworkers Local 4783 at Camillus Cutlery. They've been off the job since May.

Also hurting the manufacturing sector was the loss of 58 jobs at New York Chocolate and Confections in Fulton.

Hey, we'll take anything we can.

Ex-Ithacan

Jul 23, 2006, 12:47 AM

Well I gotta admit this is the first time I've checked out this thread. Good stuff and a surprising amount of activity in the 'cuse. I'm also glad to see developers aren't waiting to see if Destiny is a for sure go. Thanks for all the info Visiteur, and I'll be sure to check back every once in a while.

I have been checking News10Now from time to time. Sad to see so many major crime stories in the city. Hope that trend stops soon.

Visiteur

Jul 26, 2006, 2:44 PM

Thanks for stopping by Ex-Ithacan. Concerning News10Now, the only thing I like about them is that they restored the old metro staion and turned that into their CNY headquarters. Interesting mural of the trains on the building's side that is facing the highway as well.

See, the problem with stories like this is that they never translate to concrete progress. There's a nod to Ithaca in there too.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/city/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1153472490168560.xml&coll=1
Syracuse gets high marks again
Business magazine gives it five stars for quality of life for second straight year.
Friday, July 21, 2006
By John Mariani
Staff writer
For the second year running, a magazine that caters to companies seeking new business locations has put the Syracuse metropolitan area on its must-see list.

Syracuse was among 73 cities across the nation named to Expansion Management magazine's list of five-star cities for quality of living in an article June 12. Onondaga County Executive Nicholas Pirro spread the word Thursday in a news release.

The five-star towns represent the top-ranking 20 percent of all 362 metro areas evaluated by Expansion Management.

The magazine analyzed 49 categories to determine how each city stacked up for safety, housing affordability, quality of public schools, overall standard of living, adult education levels, easiest commutes to work, continuing education opportunities and commercial air access. The magazine also looked at whether a young, affordable work force was available.

Scoring highly in a given category did not assure five stars to a community.

Syracuse made the big list without scoring in the top 10 in any of the major categories. The same was true of Albany-Schenectady-Troy, Binghamton and Rochester, New York's other five-star towns.

Ithaca ranked No. 1 nationally for highest adult education levels and No. 2 under "best public schools," but only made the magazine's four-star list, the next 20 percent of all cities. Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Tonawanda also made the four-star roster.

Ex-Ithacan

Jul 26, 2006, 10:21 PM

^Thanks for all the Central NY info. :) Good to see some positive news about upstate. Almost seems like searching for the needle in the haystack trying to find good PR for the upstate area. Thanks Visiteur.

Visiteur

Jul 29, 2006, 1:54 AM

I enjoy finding the needles though. They restore some of my optimism. For those that don't know, Cicero is a town ten miles north of Syracuse.

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-4/1154077405180830.xml

Cicero company flowering overseas
Refrigeration venture expands its operations to Europe
Friday, July 28, 2006
By Rick Moriarty
Staff writer
A Cicero company that makes refrigerated floral displays for supermarkets is branching out to overseas markets.

Floratech Inc., a division of Air Innovations Inc., launched a partnership in 2004 with Klinge Corp., a multinational corporation headquartered in Denmark that has specialized in transport refrigeration for more than 25 years.

The new venture, FloratechEurope, in March shipped 70 refrigerated floral display units made in Cicero to European supermarkets. Seventy more are expected to be shipped in August.

Air Innovations Chief Executive Officer Larry Wetzel said all assembly work is being done at the company's factory at 7000 Performance Drive at Hancock Air Park, formerly Hancock Air Force Base. Klinge, under the FloratechEurope name, is handling sales, installation and servicing, he said.

FloratechEurope is selling the product in western Europe, including Great Britain, and is moving into eastern Europe, Wetzel said.

Europeans buy a lot of cut flowers, but grocery stores in Europe have not generally refrigerated their floral displays, a practice that extends the product's shelf life. But Wetzel said stores there are starting to pick up the practice.

"It's a trend we think will grow," he said.

Floratech also is in conversations with supermarket chains in Australia.

The Floratech division will celebrate its 20th anniversary Monday with an open house for elected officials, vendors and other invited guests, followed by a picnic for employees.

Entrepreneur and former Carrier Corp. engineer James Kelly started Floratech in 1986. Wetzel, a former air-conditioning installer from Long Island, and his son Michael bought the company in 1996 and moved it from East Syracuse to Cicero.

Larry Wetzel founded Clean Room Technology Inc. in DeWitt in 1983 to build contaminant-free rooms for semiconductor manufacturers and other high-tech operations that require super-clean and temperature- and humidity-controlled environments. He sold it to a French company in 1989 and bought back the company's air-conditioning arm in 1999.

The Wetzels formed Air Innovations in 2001 and made Floratech and their air-conditioning business divisions part of it. Michael is the company's president.

The privately held company does not release profit figures, but Larry Wetzel said it has revenues of about $8 million a year. Its combined work force has grown from 26 in 1999 to 45 this year.

And Wetzel said the company supports another 25 jobs at local companies that provide sheet metal, electrical devices and other components for the company's products.

Floratech's refrigerated display units account for about 35 percent of Air Innovations' revenues, he said.

Floral display cases are not the only products Air Innovations is exporting. It also makes what it calls "severe duty" air conditioners for applications such as steel mills, desert military sites and marine locations around the world. The air conditioners are designed to resist dust, sand and corrosion in the harshest environments.

Wetzel said Air Innovations is in negotiations with Canadian and French companies for the distribution of the company's line of specialized air-conditioning units for upscale home and commercial wine cellars.

I know, I know, it seems small, but it's a start.

Ex-Ithacan

Jul 29, 2006, 4:54 PM

^ Sounds like the American success model to me. Companies don't start out huge. Besides, I'm sure the 45 employees don't care how big it is as long as it stays in business. Good stuff Vis, thanks.

Visiteur

Jul 30, 2006, 9:04 PM

Development wise, not the best thing. But I'll take a community garden over a crack house without regrets.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/city/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1154164231161200.xml

Site of ex-crack house in Syracuse blossoms
Plans call for lot to become home of new Franciscan-Vietnamese Peace Garden.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
By John Mariani
Staff writer
An old crack house stood at North Townsend and Lodi streets six weeks ago.

A new lawn occupies the triangular lot today, bordered with half-barrel planters filled with geraniums, petunias and coleus.

Sometime in the near future, neighborhood activists and city officials promise, the site will be home of the Franciscan-Vietnamese Peace Garden.

Which flowers, shrubs and trees will be planted there won't be known until a design is done.

But other seedswere planted Friday, as Mayor Matt Driscoll, Franciscan Friar Phil Kelly, Vietnamese Community of Syracuse spokesman Tai Shaw and about 50 others huddled under a canopy in a downpour to dedicate the garden.

The garden "is a beacon of hope for people who want to work together" to improve the North Side, Driscoll said after the ceremony.

It also will give Vietnamese who have settled in Syracuse a community place of their own, Shaw said.

The effort resulted from longstanding neighborhood concern over the house at 1118 N. Townsend St., which had become a resort of crack users and prostitutes, said Kelly, community outreach worker for Franciscan Collaborative Ministries.

Kelly broughtthe complaint to Driscoll. The city took the house for back taxes and sold it to Home HeadQuarters, a nonprofit housing agency. Home HeadQuarters also bought the neighboring house and razed both buildings. The plan is to sell the properties to the Franciscans.

Meanwhile, Kelly and Shaw, both Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative advisory board members, began discussing the site. Vietnamese Community members will plant and maintain the garden, Shaw said.

The state College of Environmental Science and Forestry Center for Community Design Research is to begin the landscaping design this fall, working with the Vietnamese Community, Shaw said. Other North Side groups will participate as the project goes forward, he said.

The fundraisingphase will follow, Shaw said. Completion is expected by fall 2007, city officials said.

The dedication reflected the collaboration. Dan Nguyen and his son, Daniel, donned a red-and-gold dragon costume and danced three times around the podium to bring luck. Driscoll and representatives from Home HeadQuarters and Rep. James Walsh's office spoke.

"On behalf of the Vietnamese Community, thank you for giving us a peace garden that represents the Vietnamese belonging to the city of Syracuse," Shaw said. "We finally made it."

John Mariani can be reached at jmariani@syracuse.com or at 470-3105.

JManc

Jul 31, 2006, 1:36 AM

Visiteur

Aug 1, 2006, 2:25 PM

I would hope this is a good thing...there goes two 8-story low-income housing towers...for townhomes.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/city/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1154422690267380.xml&coll=1&thispage=2
State OKs Maple Heights money
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
By Mike Fish
Staff writer
Maple Heights, a proposed town house project designed to replace the dilapidated Cherry Hill housing complex on Syracuse's East Side, got a major boost out of Albany Monday.

Gov. George Pataki announced more than $117 million in funding for affordable-housing projects in the state, including $11.8 million in financing for Maple Heights.

The amount includes $999,863 per year for 10 years in income tax credits. That will enable Key Community Development Corp., an affiliate of KeyBank, to invest $9.6 million in the Maple Heights project, said COR partner Joe Gerardi and Housing Visions President Kenyon M. Craig.

Pataki also announced that the state Housing Trust Fund has approved a $2.2 million loan for the Maple Heights project. The loan, which is payable over 30 years, has an interest rate of 1 percent.

The green light on $11.8 million means developers have wrapped up more than 77 percent of the funding needed for the 50-unit project to replace Cherry Hill, a 164-unit complex at 1700 E. Genesee St.

The Empire State Development Corp. a year and a half ago shut down Cherry Hill, ending years of high vacancies, financial problems and code violations.

In December, COR Development Co., of Manlius, and Housing Visions Unlimited, of Syracuse, revealed plans to tear down the 30-year-old Cherry Hill complex and build the $15.2 million Maple Heights town house project for low- and moderate-income families.

While Pataki's announcement was good news for the proposed Maple Heights project, COR and Housing Visions are still waiting to hear about the fate of two other funding components.

Craig said he is optimistic that Maple Heights will soon receive a $2 million, zero-interest loan from the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

The Maple Heights developers said their housing project qualifies for that loan because 12 of the 50 units will be set aside for veterans who are receiving support services from Veterans Affairs.

The Maple Heights team is also awaiting word on whether the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will continue to make annual payments that HUD used to make when Cherry Hill was open.

Those payments were to continue through 2015, but HUD stopped them when Cherry Hill was shut down.

A HUD spokesman in May said the agency wanted to see more than 50 units built at the new Maple Heights complex. Gerardi said COR and Housing Visions are still negotiating that issue with HUD.

If HUD agrees to resume those payments, Maple Heights will be able to finance the remaining $1.4 million "to make it work," Gerardi said.

While Craig and Gerardi were pleased with the news out of Albany Monday, they said they still need to wrap up the other two pieces of funding.

"It's a large step forward, but there are other components that need to happen before this project is certain," Gerardi said.

Ah yes, I forgot, there's a picture thread for the city now. Go and look if you so like, and validate my existence.

Visiteur

Aug 2, 2006, 3:50 PM

Dirty dealings in the 'Cuse?

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1154509088219960.xml
City suspects Eli Hadad still involved in garage
Economic development director wonders why building sold for $2 million.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
By Greg Munno and John O'Brien
Staff writers
Top Syracuse officials suspect Miami real estate speculator Eli Hadad might still be involved in the Warren Street parking garage, which is at the center of a plan to keep more than 1,000 jobs downtown.

The 350-space garage is located across from Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, the health-care giant. Excellus threatened to leave the city over a parking shortage even before the Warren Street garage was shut down in April because of code and safety violations.

As his properties deteriorated, Hadad vowed to pull out of Syracuse. He appeared to sell the 56-year-old garage for $2 million in June to a California company that sells plastic bags. A new deed states the building is owned by GT Garage LLC, a subsidiary of GT Bag Co. of San Rafael, Calif.

But Syracuse Economic Development Director Dave Michel said he is concerned the sale was not an "arm's length transaction," meaning he believes Hadad might still have a stake in the property.

Michel said he does not have hard evidence, just suspicions.

"Why would someone from California who doesn't have other property in the area suddenly buy a dilapidated parking garage in Syracuse?" Michel asked. "And second, why would they spend $2 million for it? . . .

"Frankly the building isn't worth much. . . . If you look at the sale as an independent business transaction, it doesn't make a lot of sense."

The garage's tax assessment is $1.5 million. An engineering report found it needed $1.4 million in repairs, Michel said.

Adding to the suspicion: The buyer's lawyer also represented Hadad in housing court in Syracuse in June.

When a reporter asked the Syracuse lawyer, Jeff DeRoberts, about it last month, DeRoberts at first said he "never officially appeared for Eli in housing court to my knowledge." When he was asked about the June date, he said he did appear on behalf of Hadad's lawyer from Buffalo.

DeRoberts would not say whether he'd ever spoken with Hadad. "I don't want to talk about my relationships with my clients," DeRoberts said.

Andrew Romanow, the Buffalo lawyer for Hadad, said he retained DeRoberts to handle the one matter in housing court to save himself the trip to Syracuse. Romanow said he understood GT Bag found DeRoberts on its own.

Romanow said he knows of no connection between Hadad and GT Bag or its owner, Jean-Michel Frederick. Neither Hadad nor Frederick could be reached for comment.

Another oddity about the sale: James Blakeman, head of the city's Department of Code Enforcement, said GT Garage LLC never asked the city before the purchase what repairs were needed. Normally, a prospective buyer would check, he said.

Developer Anthony Fiorito said he negotiated with Hadad through Romanow for six months over the garage and that talks broke down shortly before the June sale. Fiorito is part of a city-backed development group that hopes to obtain the garage and four other buildings on Warren Street and convert them into a 945-space garage that would meet Excellus' needs.

"We were just too far apart," Fiorito said of the negotiations. "We could not get close."

He said Hadad wanted close to $3 million. Fiorito would not say how much his group offered, but said it was less than $2 million. Michel said Fiorito's group has budgeted $2.35 million to obtain the garage and the other properties it needs.

Fiorito said that if the city ends up trying to take the garage through eminent domain, a court will settle on a price close to his offer.

The $2 million sale would not establish the court-ordered value, Fiorito said. He said each party will submit several appraisals.

"That garage is currently inoperable it is really a blight on the community and needs to be brought back on line," Fiorito said. "It is in major disrepair. Its value continues to deteriorate and simply isn't worth that much. All those factors will be considered."

Michel said the city has had no contact with the new owners, other than a brief conversation with DeRoberts shortly after the sale. DeRoberts called Michel and told him the new owners wanted to repair and reopen the garage, Michel said. Michel said he told DeRoberts the city's plan was to work with Fiorito.

City code inspectors have been to the garage in the past week, citing it again for having uninspected elevators and no operating certificate, Blakeman said.

Tuesday, the garage was deserted, and it did not appear any recent repairs had been made.

The city will seek a new court order setting the same conditions on GT Garage that Hadad was facing to get the garage opened, Assistant Corporation Counsel Lee Plavoukos said.

Romanow said he believes the new owner does indeed want to repair the garage. When open, Romanow estimated, it takes in at least $40,000 a month.

"The new owner just wants a fair shake," Romanow said. "He just wants the ability to fix this garage and run it. He probably would like to satisfy the city that he's not Eli's son or brother or cousin."

Hadad became a lightning rod for controversy almost as soon as he went on a local real estate buying spree in 2001. He quickly bought more than 15 properties worth more than $12 million.

He bought many buildings without even seeing them, amassed dozens of building code violations and fell behind on his taxes and utility payments. At the same time, Hadad was wrapped up in a federal investigation into the Jerusalem Network, an Israeli organized crime outfit.

Ex-Ithacan

Aug 2, 2006, 4:06 PM

That's not only fishy, it sounds like the guy might belong in jail. I hope the new company does fix up the garage, and Bluecross doesn't leave downtown. 1,000 jobs lost would have quite the negative impact on the city. Keep us posted Vis.

Visiteur

Aug 5, 2006, 9:29 PM

Hey Ex, I thought of the comment you made earlier when I saw this:

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-4/1154768679107940.xml&coll=1

Food Fit for Luxury
C.L. Evers' new products cater to upscale tastes
Saturday, August 05, 2006
By Rick Moriarty
Staff writer

Downtown's only grocery store, C.L. Evers & Co. Market, is going gourmet.

Five months after opening in the historic Amos building near Clinton Square, C.L. Evers is changing its focus from being a general grocery store to being an upscale food market.

The store has hired an executive chef, Michael Clark, and is offering prepared meals to go, said Mark Congel, who developed the store and 19 apartments in the Amos building with former Walt Disney Co. executive Dan Queri.

Built in the 1850s as a dry goods warehouse along the Erie Canal, the Amos Building had been vacant since a restaurant moved out eight years ago.

Congel said the market research he and Queri did before starting the project showed that people wanted a downtown grocery store. So that's what they built.

But after talking with customers since the store opened in March, Congel said it became clear to him that what the people really wanted was a specialty food store, with a strong focus on high-quality, prepared meals that people can take home and finish cooking in the microwave.

Clark came on board three weeks ago and expanded offering of packaged meals that are 80 percent cooked and then flash-frozen. Clark said the result is a restaurant-quality meal at home, not something that tastes like it was reheated.

"The integrity of the product is still there," said Clark.

The selection of prepared meals Wednesday included chicken cordon bleu with pasta; baked lemon chicken with asparagus and roasted potatoes; salmon with seasoned potatoes and asparagus; and cheese tortellini. The prices averaged about $7.

Customers soon will be able to customize their meals, picking from a menu a la carte.

And Clark plans to offer hot entrees that can be eaten without additional cooking.

"I'm definitely a hands-on chef," he said.

C.L. Evers still sells traditional grocery items, such as bread, milk, packaged foods, cleaning supplies and pet food.

But there will be a greater emphasis on gourmet items.

For example, the store will soon drop Mueller's pasta and replace it with La Bella Italian pasta, in flavors such as chili pepper, lemon, basil and sun-dried tomato. Specialty sauces will replace the Prego and Ragu brands.

"We're not silly enough to think we can replace Wegmans," said Congel, son of mall developer Robert Congel. "What we can do is give customers a shopping experience at C.L. Evers that puts off a trip to Wegmans."

(We interrupt this article so Visiteur can scream curse words at the thought of Congelisation of the city...thank you).

The gourmet offerings in the store fit with the upscale theme of the overall Amos project. Twelve of the building's 19 apartments are leased, with rents ranging from $1,600 to more than $2,400, Congel said.

All of the one- and two-bedroom apartments have 1 bathrooms, granite countertops, solid wood cabinets and a combination washer and dryer. Storage space and Time Warner cable television and digital phone service are included in the rent.

And in a rarity for Syracuse, Amos tenants have their very own concierge, Jason Krohl. He delivers food from C.L. Evers, runs errands, ships packages, drives tenants to the airport and even takes their cars to get repaired and brings them back when they're fixed.

Ex-Ithacan

Aug 5, 2006, 9:58 PM

That's exactly what downtown Ithaca needs. I hope it works in Syracuse. If it does I bet they could open a second in Ithaca in a year or two and have success once the proposed apartments get online. Thanks for the info Vis.

Of course this may all be wishfull thinking on my part.:shrug:

Visiteur

Aug 7, 2006, 1:44 PM

Since I was too busy to get a chance yesterday....and it was broadcast on the news as well...

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-6/115494095635470.xml&coll=1
How a civic group aims to revive downtown
40 Below creates a board to buy and renovate the Wilson Building on Salina Street.
Monday, August 07, 2006
By Cammi Clark
Staff writer

A group of young professionals aims to awaken the long-troubled Wilson Building with downtown apartments and stores, making it a vital link between Armory Square and South Salina Street.

Over the next year, the group, Adapt CNY, plans to buy the vacant building from the city, turn it into 33 apartments and 7,500 square feet of commercial space and create a passageway to Armory Square.

Adapt is a nonprofit group created in December by the civic organization 40 Below. Its goal is to encourage a vibrant downtown through the redevelopment of vacant and underutilized property in Syracuse's urban core.

The Wilson Building, 306 S. Salina St., is its first project.

Adapt's 11-member board was a self-selected group interested in the redevelopment of downtown Syracuse, said Rob Simpson, an Adapt board member.

"We made sure to find a representative group of people, including construction, legal, accounting, economic development, fundraising and more," he said. "We've gotten a tremendous amount of advice from developers to architects. While Adapt is spearheading the project, we are in no means the only one working on this."

The group was looking for a place to renovate when Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll proposed the Wilson Building.

"Obviously, I want to be supportive of this 40 Below group and their efforts," Driscoll said.

"In the greater plan of things for Salina Street, the Wilson Building can play a major role in that."

The city bought the Wilson Building in October 2004 for $3,000. It was owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes, said John Gammage, commissioner of assessment.

The city had tried to foreclose on the building for 12 years while the owner filed three separate bankruptcy actions, Gammage said.

"Each of those actions delayed any attempts to foreclose or do anything with the building," he said.

The city searched unsuccessfully for a developer. The building, assessed at $700,000, has been vacant since November.

Last month, the Syracuse Common Council approved a one-year option for Adapt to buy the building for $117,000.

In the next month, Adapt will negotiate a sales agreement with the city. By Oct. 1, the group hopes to have historic preservation tax credits in place. By Jan. 1, it hopes to have final architectural drawings as well as some commitment of finance.

Cleanup of the building is expected to begin as early as this fall, Simpson said.

One piece of the plan the mayor wants to ensure is a pedestrian passageway or physical connector from Salina Street to Armory Square.

"I think it's really important," Driscoll said. "In some ways (Armory Square) is kind of landlocked. That portal from the Armory Square area to Salina Street can be a real impetus for further growth."

Driscoll said the city supports Adapt's efforts.

"It's (the Wilson Building project) as challenging for this particular group as it is for anybody. . . . They have the commitment and the drive to see it through," Driscoll said.

Doug Sutherland knows a bit about the challenges of downtown development.

He is a partner in Franklin Properties who developed lofts at Franklin Square and on Willow Street.

"If it was easy, everyone would be doing it," he said of downtown development. "What we found is there's something of a disconnect of what you can charge in rent and what it costs to redevelop a building."

Adapt estimates renovating the Wilson Building could cost nearly $4 million.

Adapt's board came up with a plan that attracted $200,000 in Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative money. The board members hope to use that grant to leverage more money to buy and renovate the building. The group has about 300 volunteers.

"It's a building with a rich history that I don't think people really know about," said Simpson.

The group also is in the process of getting the building on a national historic registry and eligible for historic preservation tax credits.

"The whole block is eligible," said Andrew Breuer, Adapt board member.

The group has also applied for grants to help fund the project. Financing is intended to come from private investors, loans and grants, according to the board members.

"To some extent the Wilson Building can be an anchor for the revitalizing of the 300 block of Salina Street," Simpson said. "This is going to rejuvenate everyone in the community to see the 300 block of Salina redevelop and the Wilson Building become an anchor again."

Cammi Clark can be reached at cclark@syracuse.com or 470-6005.

http://www.syracuse.com/flags/332/ne_060807_nl_wilsonbldg.jpg
Building in centre of image

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-5/115485476810870.xml&coll=1&thispage=3

Company wants to build
Syracuse, ESF, Siemens would be partners. It could cut city's power bill.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
By Greg Munno and Nancy Buczek
Staff writers
The Siemens Corp. plans to build a "green" power plant in the city of Syracuse and sell the power to the city and school district at rates lower than they are paying now, according to the city and company.

If all goes according to schedule, the plant could be built and producing power within 18 months.

The city estimates it will save $1.2 million per year on its electricity bill. It also anticipates being able to capture federal and state money meant to reward green energy use and sell the storm debris the city collects to the plant. It even says that the plant could sell some surplus electricity for a total estimated benefit of $150 million over the next 20 years.

The State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry is also a partner in the project. The school will help Siemens acquire fuel for the plant, which will extract energy from willow trees through a process called gasification.

ESF will also buy some of the power from the plant, build a research lab and classrooms at the facility, and create a new bachelor's de- 9

gree program in renewable energy systems, which could start as soon as fall 2007, according to ESF President Cornelius "Neil" Murphy Jr.

Several sites are being considered for the plant, with the most likely being a 4-acre undeveloped plot between Erie Boulevard and Interstate 690 slightly west of Thompson Road, according to Jim Olcott, a Siemens account manager working on the project.

The plan calls for Siemens to shoulder the cost of obtaining land for the plant, building the facility, buying fuel and running the operation, according to the city and Siemens. "There would be no up-front cost to the city at all," Mayor Matt Driscoll said.

The city would sign a 20-year contract with Siemens, agreeing to buy a certain amount of power from the plant at a fixed price.

That price hasnot yet been determined. The price must be set high enough that it makes sense for Siemens to build the plant, and low enough that it will guarantee the city a cost savings over what it currently pays for power. Whether or not a price acceptable to both parties can be found will determine whether the project will become a reality, Olcott and Driscoll said. But both are confident they can strike a deal.

"We are doing our due diligence now and studying exactly how much power the city will need and what size plant we will build, but our initial estimates are that we can save the city about 30 percent over what they are paying now," Olcott said. "We should definitely be competitive on price, on top of being environmentally friendly.

"And," he added, "with ESF's involvement and the fact that we would be purchasing willow from area farms, there's tremendous potential for spin-offs."

There are some risks for the city, but they seem remote, said Paul Thompson, the city's energy coordinator. If the city agrees with Siemens on a price for power and then energy prices unexpectedly fall, the city would be locked into the higher price. "But everyone expects energy to continue to go up, and one of the things I really like about this plan is it allows us to know our future energy costs with a high degree of certainty," Thompson said.

Any final agreement with Siemens would have to be approved by the Syracuse Common Council. The council's Public Works Committee will hear a pitch on the proposal at its meeting at noon Wednesday.

In the short term, the council will be asked to approve a resolution asking Siemens to move forward with plans for the plant. The resolution itself would expose the city to some risk. It would obligate the city to repay Siemens for the cost of continuing to develop the proposal if Siemens meets a series of benchmarks but, for whatever reason, the city decides not to sign on to the final deal. That cost would be capped at $345,000, said Public Works Committee Chairman Bill Simmons.

"I think that is a reasonable request, since we are asking them to do the work," Simmons said. "I am very much in favor of this proposal. We have to find a way to save on energy costs and have more control over our energy supply."

The proposedplant's design is considered environmentally friendly mainly because it would use willows for fuel. Willows grow quickly they can be harvested within three years of planting and therefore are a renewable, sustainable, source of energy.

The willows also take the same amount of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, out of the air when they grow as they put into the air when they are used for energy. That makes the plant "carbon neutral," according to ESF's Murphy.

Another green technology in the plant is the gasifier, which extracts gas from the wood. The gas is then burned to fire turbines or an engine to produce electricity. Gasifying the wood instead of burning it is both cleaner and more efficient, said Tim Volk, a research associate at ESF.

The plant's exactsize has yet to be determined, but the current proposal is for a 10 megawatt facility, which would take care of the majority of the city and school district's electrical needs. If a 10 megawatt plant is built, ESF estimates, the carbon reduction would be equivalent to removing nearly 40,000 cars from the road.

The project is unlike any Siemens has done before, but Olcott says there is solid precedent for it. In 2001, Siemens built a traditional gas-fired plant for Monroe County under an agreement similar to the one Siemens seeks with Syracuse. Siemens has also built a gasification plant in Georgia that extracts gas from carpet scraps.

"The business model and technology we are proposing for Syracuse are all proven, but have never been brought together in this particular combination," Olcott said.

Using wood for fuel does create pollution, no matter how efficiently it is done. The Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency was banned by the state from burning wood mulch and yard waste when its trash incinerator opened in 1994. The incinerator also produces energy, with a capacity of 39 megawatts.

Ken Lynch, regional director for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said the new power plant's developers will have to obtain one or more state environmental permits before the project can move forward. Lynch said the state has no outright ban on the burning of wood in power plants. But he said the state is concerned about the potential nitrogen emissions, which lead to acid rain.

Olcott said Siemens will work closely with regulatory agencies like the DEC to ensure the plant meets environmental standards.

The effort tobuild the plant is the latest in a series of green initiatives by Driscoll. The mayor hired Thompson in 2002 to lower the city's energy use and costs, and since then the city has replaced its street and traffic lighting systems, updated fixtures in the parking garages and in city hall, and become smarter about reducing its energy use at times of the day when power is particularly expensive.

Thompson estimates those efforts and others have saved about $1.2 million since 2002, and cut carbon emissions by about 11,000 tons a year. Last year, the city won two prestigious environmental awards, the Sol Feinstone Award and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Protection Award. In fact, the city has been so successful in reducing energy usage that Siemens is worried a 10 megawatt plant may be too big, Olcott said.

"We are starting to gain a national reputation as a progressive city on environmental issues," Driscoll said. "It's something we can capitalize on in many ways."

Staff writer Mark Weiner and librarian Bonnie Ross contributed to this report. Staff writer Greg Munno can be reached at 470-6084 or gmunno@syracuse.com.

Ex-Ithacan

Aug 7, 2006, 3:42 PM

oops, double post

Ex-Ithacan

Aug 7, 2006, 3:43 PM

I hope the Wilson building rehab is a success, and points the way for Adapt and other groups and investors to continue with downtown's revitalization.

The green building phenom has hit Ithaca also. The new apartmant building going up at Gateway downtown is green(ECO). It helps offset some costs through grants and tax breaks. And it helps us save on energy usage. Sounds like a win-win.

btw Vis, did ya see the News10Now piece on Ithaca being named to the list of best never heard of places? Kind of sounds like a back-handed compliment.:shrug:

Visiteur

Aug 10, 2006, 2:18 AM

Here's some good news:
http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-4/1155114642191720.xml

Agency poised to seize garage
Eminent domain action likely to provide for renovations on Warren Street garage.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
By Rick Moriarty
Staff writer
The Syracuse Industrial Development Agency likely will acquire a parking garage on Warren Street by eminent domain, enabling a private developer to repair and enlarge it to help keep a major employer downtown, the city's economic development director said Tuesday.

David Michel said the agency likely will start an eminent domain action against the Warren Street garage after approving an environmental impact statement for the project.

The agency is working with Warren Street Parking Associates LLC, headed by developer Anthony Fiorito, to repair the 450-space garage and to build an addition with 500 spaces, bringing the total number of spaces to 950.

Eight hundred of those spaces would be leased to the Excellus BlueCross BlueShield insurance company, which employs about 1,000 people across the street from the garage. A pedestrian bridge would connect Excellus to the garage.

The development agency's board of directors voted 5-0 at a special meeting Tuesday to approve a resolution that a draft environmental impact statement was complete. The vote was necessary before the agency can begin a 30-day public comment period for the project.

After public comments are received, the agency will decide whether to approve the final environmental impact statement a report on potential effects of the project on the environment and traffic and ways to minimize them.

An eminent domain action could take at least a couple of months to complete. The agency would have to seek a court order condemning the property and giving ownership to the agency. The agency would be required to pay market value for the property. If the agency and the garage's owner could not agree on a price, each side would submit appraisals and the court would set the value.

In April, the city forced Eli Hadad, then the owner of the garage, to close it because of code and safety violations.

In June, Hadad sold the 56-year-old structure for $2 million to GT Garage LLC, a subsidiary of GT Bag Co. of San Rafael, Calif., a seller of plastic bags.

Michel has raised questions about whether the sale was an arm's-length transaction by Hadad. The tax assessment on the garage is $1.5 million, and an engineering report found it needs $1.4 million in repairs. Given those numbers, the $2 million paid by in June "seems high to us," Michel said Tuesday.

Jeffrey DeRoberts, the attorney who represented GT Garage in the sale, could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

The garage repairs and expansion will cost $15 million, and about half the cost will be subsidized by the state and the city development agency. The state has agreed pay up to $6 million, and the development agency will throw in about $1.6 million.

City officials say the project is necessary to keep Excellus downtown.

Rick Moriarty can be reached at 470-3148 or rmoriarty@syracuse.com.

Here's some so-so news:

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/city/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1155114006191720.xml

HDL Property Group, which is developing Walgreens pharmacies in Syracuse, is making a public relations push with a series of meetings over the next week in a bid to win support for two planned stores and perhaps several others.

There will be meetings today and Thursday to discuss HDL's little-publicized plan to build a Walgreens at Valley Drive and West Seneca Turnpike. And there will be a meeting Aug. 16 to discuss the evolution of HDL's plan to build a Walgreens at Grant Boulevard and James Street in Eastwood.

Kathleen Callahan, chairwoman of the Syracuse Common Council's Economic Development Committee, said HDL's efforts may also be part of a broader push by the company to smooth the way for additional Syracuse stores.

"They've expressed to me an interest in building a total of five to seven stores in the city," Callahan said.

Guy Hart Jr., a partner with HDL, said it was ultimately up to Walgreens, not his company, how many stores are built and that he could not discuss Walgreens' strategy.

"But I'll say that Walgreens is committed to growth in Syracuse," he said.

Representatives at Walgreens corporate headquarters in Deerfield, Ill., could not be reached for comment.

HDL ran into community opposition after it proposed a store in Eastwood and had to submit three different plans to the Syracuse Planning Commission before the project won approval in December.

Even then, dozens of East-

wood residents protested the planning commission vote, saying the plans still did not meet the neighborhood's design guidelines.

There were some community discussions with HDL in the early stages of the Eastwood debate, but Callahan said they didn't feel collaborative.

"It was more of a 'take-it-or-leave-it' approach," said Callahan, herself an Eastwood resident who urged the planning commission to delay its December vote.

But Callahan has recently been meeting with Hart and said she has noticed a difference. "There seems to be more reaching out, and the changes they are proposing, to my eye, greatly improve the project," she said.

Callahan said HDL has also generated goodwill by helping the current tenants of the building at James Street and Grant Boulevard relocate within Eastwood. The Music Center, for instance, will move farther east on James Street to a spot near Wegmans. The True Value Hardware store will also be staying in the neighborhood, she and Hart said.

Hart said he and his company never intended to freeze the residents out of the process and thought they were including residents in their discussion.

"But we learned that there are many groups that represent residents in any given neighborhood," he said. "I don't mean this critically, but it was somewhat fragmented. In the Valley, we simply intend to meet with everyone so everyone feels included."

Whether the new approach wins over residents remains to be seen. Lonnie Chu, an Eastwood activist who runs the site http://walkeastwood.org, said the very timing of the 11 a.m. meeting to be held at the Palace Theatre Aug. 16 suggests the developer still doesn't get it.

"For all the work we have done improving Eastwood, we are just volunteers, and it will be hard for many of us to make it to a meeting in the middle of a business day," said Chu, an instructor at Syracuse University.

And in the Valley, Marge Hoyt, who as president of the Webster Pond Neighborhood Watch will be hosting Hart on Thursday, said she is struggling to keep an open mind.

"I am certainly glad he is meeting with us - that's the right thing to do," Hoyt said. "But I am concerned about traffic. I am concerned about the Valley becoming more commercial and losing its neighborhood appeal.

"And I am concerned that the Valley - which already has an Eckerd across from where Walgreens wants to build, has a Kinney up by Brighton Avenue and has another Eckerd nearby in Nedrow on South Salina Street - can't support that many pharmacies," she added. "I am concerned one of them will be an empty shell in a couple of years."

Here's some news that would make preservationists cheer up a little:

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/city/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1155027511326550.xml
Bid to raze WFBL buildings rejected
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
By Greg Munno
Staff writer
The old WFBL buildings on South Warren Street have been spared the wrecking ball for at least a year.

The Syracuse Planning Commission voted 4-1 Monday against a plan by the buildings' owner to tear down the vacant early 20th-century structures.

Tom Quartier, who owns Quartier Printing in an adjacent building, had hoped to use the lot for parking. He has said the buildings are in disrepair and that it would not be worth the money to rehabilitate them.

The vote still leaves the buildings' futures in doubt. Quartier declined to comment after the vote. And even Don Radke, chairman of the city's Landmark Preservation Board, has said that "the economic viability of the building(s) is marginal at best."

Still, the preservation board denied Quartier permission to tear down the buildings, forcing Quartier to appeal to the planning commission, which has now rejected his application. Quartier will have to wait a year to resubmit plans to demolish the building.

Quartier had asked the commission to vote on the demolition so he could determine whether it was worth the expense to fully develop the plans for the parking lot.

Commission member Michael Heagerty asked the commission to approve the demolition with the condition that Quartier present a plan for the parking lot that the commission would feel comfortable with. That motion failed 3-2, with Catherine Murphy Pietrafesa, Steven Kulick and Bob Rhode voting against the motion, and Heagerty and commission Chairman Dr. Ruben Cowart voting in favor.

In voting against the measure, Murphy Pietrafesa said she was uncomfortable with the idea of considering the design of the lot and the demolition separately. "It is a departure from our normal practice, and the use we are approving the demolition for seems central to the question," she said.

The commission then essentially gave Quartier the option of delaying a final vote on his

application so that he could enhance the preliminary plans he had submitted for the parking lot.

Quartier and his lawyer, Holly Austin, of Hancock & Estabrook, asked the commission to provide a better idea of what sort of plan it might accept. When the commission said it could not provide that information, Quartier and Austin said they would prefer a final vote on their application rather than another delay.

Murphy Pietrafesa then moved to deny both the application to demolish and the application for the parking lot.

"I am concerned about the 'gap tooth' in the streetscape, I am concerned about the curb cut, I am concerned about approving a surface parking lot when nationally renowned planners have told us that should not be our goal for downtown," Murphy Pietrafesa said. "I just don't think the addition of a few surface parking spots justifies the demolition."

She was the only commission member to comment. Heagerty was the only vote against rejecting Quartier's plan.

The buildings, at 431-33 and 435-39 S. Warren St., have been used by a variety of businesses and were built around 1914. No. 431 was originally built for the City Club of Syracuse and was once home to the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce. In 1941, both were bought by the Soule family, partners of Merrell-Soule, makers of Nonesuch Mincemeat, a Syracuse industry that began in 1885. The buildings later became the home of the city's pioneer radio station, WFBL. The call letters stood for First Broadcast License.

The buildings were also once owned by now-disbarred lawyer Roger Scott. The city eventually seized them for back taxes, and Quartier purchased them in 2003 at a tax auction.

Quite a bit of news today.

Ex-Ithacan

Aug 10, 2006, 10:19 AM

Syracuse's nimby's on the go in the 2nd article, eh? Good news indeed about the garage. Let's hope the WFBL bldgs make the cut in a year.

Visiteur

Aug 12, 2006, 11:06 PM

for the folks in newer and up-and-coming cities, heed this adivce:
-Don't ruin your environment
-Don't poison the land
-Don't waste the land

Or you will regret it dearly in the future. The article below is the revdelopment of a hazardous site.

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-4/1155303894219330.xml&coll=1&thispage=2
O'Brien to match grant for $100,000
State aid will help reuse brownfield in Geddes and Solvay owned by Honeywell.
Friday, August 11, 2006
By Rick Moriarty
Staff writer
A DeWitt engineering company plans to develop a 67-acre industrial and commercial site on a former Allied Chemical landfill in the town of Geddes and the village of Solvay.

The O'Brien & Gere Cos. said Thursday it has an agreement to acquire from Honeywell Corp. the site south of Gerelock Road just west of Mathews Avenue and redevelop it.

Empire State Development Corp., the state's economic development arm, is providing a $100,000 grant from its BuildNow NY program to help pay for planning and development work.

Peter Grevelding, an O'Brien & Gere senior vice president, said the site's first occupant likely will be a saw mill that would relocate from elsewhere in Onondaga County, retaining and creating a total of 60 jobs.

O'Brien & Gere expects to reach an agreement with the mill within two weeks and cannot publicly identify it until then, he said.

The mill, which would use 28 acres, would bring 15 to 20 trucks of logs to the site each day and process them into premium hardwoods, he said.

The site is among 1,500 acres southwest of Onondaga Lake that were used by Allied and are owned by Honeywell. Much of the land was polluted with waste from Allied's operations.

Grevelding said O'Brien & Gere has a preferred developer agreement with Honeywell to purchase the 67-acre property and assume its environmental liability. Cleanup of the site and construction will cost $8 million to $12 million, he said.

O'Brien & Gere does much more than provide traditional engineering services. Its divisions provide environmental clean-up services and design and build industrial facilities.

Grevelding said the Gerelock Road site contains waste mostly limestone from the making of soda ash, a form of sodium carbonate that was used in the manufacture of glass containers. But it also contains pollutants that were dumped in the landfill over the years, he said.

The site will be paved over, creating a "cap" to prevent anybody from coming into contact with the soil, he said. The plan will have to be approved by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Grevelding, a former member of the industrial development agency, said O'Brien & Gere is working on plans to redevelop the rest of Honeywell's 1,500 acres in Solvay and Geddes.

"Honeywell is being very good in working with us," he said. "They want to see the land redeveloped instead of just capping it."

He said redevelopment projects on the 1,500 acres might be eligible for state tax credits under a program that encourages the cleanup and re-use of polluted sites, often referred to as "brownfields."

Other incentives for building on the land are that the property is inexpensive and has access to the relatively low electric rates charged by Solvay's municipal electric department, he said. That is a motivation for the saw mill moving to the site, he said.

The Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency's board of directors voted 4-0 Thursday to become a conduit for the $100,000 state grant. O'Brien & Gere will be required to match the grant with $100,000 worth of planning and development services.

The agency will collect no fee for acting as a pass-through for the state money. Donald Western, executive director of the agency and the county's economic development director, said the agency has never charged a fee for simply serving as a conduit for grants.

Agency Chairman Robert Baldwin said the agency would be able to collect fees for any assistance it provides for construction projects on the land. The agency provides aid by issuing bonds to help finance projects and by exempting structures from property and mortgage-recording taxes and from sales taxes on construction materials, furnishings and fixtures.

In other business Thursday, the agency:

Heard plans by Syracuse Home Association to build an 80-bed skilled-nursing facility and convert an 80-bed nursing facility into approximately 46 assisted-living units at 7740 Megis Road, Van Buren. The project, including the refinancing of $3.39 million of debt, will cost $16.94 million.

The nonprofit association has applied for tax-exempt bonding from the agency. Tax-exempt bonds will save the association about $1.6 million in interest costs over 10 years.

Voted 4-0 to approve a lease transaction for the renovation and equipping of a building at 7547 Morgan Road, Clay, by P. Drescher Co. for use by a start-up company, Warner Energy, and by Paul deLima Coffee, which has been owned by Drescher since 2004.

About 30 jobs will be created by the project, mostly at Paul deLima. The project will cost $1.29 million.

The lease transaction will allow the agency to exempt Drescher from sales taxes on construction materials, furnishings and other equipment, saving it about $69,150.

Visiteur

Aug 15, 2006, 3:04 PM

Curious...no real population increase, but a major increase in the number of households...

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1155632769297740.xml&coll=1
Census Shows CNY Has Plenty of Elbow Room
The population holds steady, but the number of households is rising.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
By Marnie Eisenstadt
Staff writer

There are more front doors to knock on in Central New York these days.

But that doesn't mean there are more people to answer them.

The number of Central New Yorkers roughly 705,000 in Cayuga, Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties remained flat between 2000 and 2005, according to Census Bureau data released today. But the number of households the dinner tables and the mailboxes grew by 8,491 (from 278,799 households to 287,290).

The trend, about a 3 percent increase, continues a change that occurred here between 1990 and 2000, when the number of households increased 3.5 percent while the population dropped by 10,000 people.

Children moved out on their own. Divorces split one family into two. Rent-sharing roommates were cast aside in exchange for solitude. And real estate sales boomed without a population surge.

The number of people sharing a front door with someone else has gone down. The number of people living alone went up 8 percent. And the number of people living in non-family arrangements, either alone or with unrelated roommates, went up more

significantly: from 95,505 to 107,570, or more than 12 percent. The average household size went from 2.53 to 2.46, and the average family size went from 3.14 to 3.04. Across the state and nation, those numbers remained flat.

The reasons for the trend are likely a combination of young and old, happy and sad, population experts say.

It has become easier for young people in Syracuse to move out on their own because of lower cost of living and housing prices. But then there are the widows and divorcees who went from households of two or more to just one.

Housing prices and a lower cost of living likely play a bigger part in the trend in CNY than they do elsewhere, said Connie Maute, director of research at the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce. The average home price in Central New York is about 20 percent below the national average, she said.

"Young people are successful in their careers and they're looking for an investment," Maute said. "They're buying homes at a much younger age."

More older people are now on their own because those children have moved out and because of divorce and death in an aging population, Maute said.

That has led to changes in the types of homes that are selling in Central New York, said Mark Harrington of Harrington Homes. The homebuilder said his sales of single-level homes and townhouses have increased 25 percent over the past few years. Most of his customers are not the young looking to make that first home purchase, but the older couples whose families shrank when the children moved out.

Although Central New York's increase in households has not gone along with any increase in population, as has been the case nationwide, it is part of national trend toward living alone, said Bob Kominski of the Census Bureau.

"It's not always for the same reasons," Kominski said. In growth areas, like Washington, D.C., the reason more people live alone is simply because there are more people. In others areas, such as Pennsylvania, the reason is more often that older people are dying off, leaving widows to live alone.

Then there are the social reasons that can be applied from coast to coast people are getting married and having children later than they used to.

Kominski said the "aloneness" of Americans has become a hot topic for top social scientists to ponder. "It is that social phenomena of aloneness, bowling alone," he said, referring to the book by the same name that studied the reasons why Americans are living alone now more than ever. "That's a trend that's been going on for some time and it continues to go on."

The numbers released today are part of an annual survey of 3 million households by the Census Bureau called the American Community Survey. By 2010, it will take the place of the long form on the census.

Marnie Eisenstadt can be reached at meisenstadt@syracuse.com or 470-2246.

Ex-Ithacan

Aug 15, 2006, 3:13 PM

I'm guessing this is happening in a lot of places. Maybe that's what is fueling the housing boom (at least in places not experiencing population growth). I wonder how many kids leaving the nest, and divorces can happen. This trend can't continue forever, then we'd all be living alone. ;)

Visiteur

Aug 20, 2006, 9:00 PM

Just a quickie.

'Strong Job Growth'
Despite seasonal peak in unemployment, CNY continues to add to work force
Friday, August 18, 2006
By Charley Hannagan
Staff writer
Seasonal job cuts in government, most of that in school-related positions, kept the area's July unemployment rate steady compared with the same month a year ago.

The unemployment rate in the Syracuse area, which includes Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties, was 4.9 percent in July. It was the lowest unemployment rate in that month for the area since July 2001, when the rate was 4.2 percent.

July's unemployment rate was a slight uptick from the 4.5 percent the area registered in June.

The area gained 4,300 jobs from July 2005 to July 2006.

"Despite the losses in manufacturing, we're still seeing strong job growth," said Karen Knapik-Scalzo, associate economist with the state Department of Labor. "It's been broadbased, with most of our industry sectors growing over the year. Even with some of those losses, we're still adding jobs."

The area lost 3,800 government jobs from June to July. The vast majority 3,500 were in education as public schools closed for the summer, she said.

Trade, transportation, and utilities registered a gain of 1,200 jobs, or 1. 8 percent, over the year as stores, warehouses, and transportation companies added workers, Knapik-Scalzo said.

The educational and health services sector gained 1,100 jobs year over year, as did the government sector, which added 800 jobs. Public schools, which are contained under government jobs, added 500 positions compared with July 2005, she said.

Manufacturing was the only sector to lose jobs. From July 2005 to July 2006, the sector lost 700 jobs.

Even though the overall number of manufacturing jobs continues to fall, smaller high-tech firms in the medical products, biotech and biofuels area have added jobs, Knapik-Scalzo said.

New York state recorded a 5.2 percent unemployment rate in July, up slightly from the 5.1 percent in July 2005. The national rate was 5 percent in July, down from the 5.2 percent registered in July a year ago.

Ex-Ithacan

Aug 21, 2006, 10:24 AM

Good for Syracuse (actually CNY). It's about time. On a sad note, Ithaca's economic growth was stagnant for the same time period. :shrug:

Visiteur

Aug 23, 2006, 10:51 PM

Good news for downtown development

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-4/115632340347400.xml
Agency approves bonds for housing
Former Masonic Lodge project eligible for $3.5 million in tax-exempt bonds.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
By Rick Moriarty
Staff writer
The Syracuse Industrial Development Agency voted Tuesday to approve $3.5 million in tax-exempt bonds to help finance the transformation of the former Masonic Lodge on Montgomery Street into 35 apartments for moderate-income artists and entrepreneurs.

The agency's board of directors voted 3-0 to make the development a project of the agency and to issue the bonds.

Masonic Lofts LLC, the developer, is eligible for tax-exempt financing because 40 percent of the apartments will be leased to people with incomes less than 60 percent of the area's median income, said Jean Everett, an attorney for the agency.

James Monahan, president of Monahan Development Corp., announced plans for the project in April. The five-story, 68,500-square-foot building at 320 Montgomery St., two blocks south of Syracuse City Hall, has sat vacant since the Metropolitan School for the Arts moved out eight years ago.

Built about 1915 by the Fraternal Order of Free Masons, the building was used by the Masons for decades for assemblies, offices and other activities. It originally contained two large, two-story assembly halls, a club lounge area, small meeting rooms and a large billiard room.

The apartments will be about 1,150 square feet each and include studio space for the tenants' businesses. All but one would have two bedrooms. They would rent for $750 a month.

Monahan has pegged the total cost of the project at $5.76 million. He has developed several other projects in the city, most recently a residential and commercial development of the former Onondaga Historical Association building, 311 Montgomery St.

The Masonic Lofts will receive a payment-in-lieu-of-tax agreement from the industrial development agency. Everett said it will pay the same property taxes it would pay if it were not an agency project.

But since the building is in a state Empire Zone, it will be eligible for property tax abatements under that economic development program, she said.

The abatements are 100 percent for the first seven years, 75 percent for year eight, 50 percent for year nine and 25 percent for year 10. It will be fully taxable after 10 years.

Only Monahan spoke at a public hearing before the vote.

The bonds will be sold to private investors and must be paid back by the developer. Neither the development agency nor the city will put up any money, and neither will have any obligation to pay off the bonds if the owner defaults.

The agency also held a public hearing, but did not vote, on an application from the developer of the Hotel Syracuse project for $11 million in tax-exempt bonds.

Those bonds would be issued under the federal Empowerment Zone program, with $3.5 million going to renovate the former hotel's 570-space garage and $7.5 million to redevelop the older, historic section of the vacant complex into apartments and retail space. The bonds also carry no risk to the agency or the city.

Gmul Investment Co. plans to turn the older section, which opened in 1924, into 175 hotel rooms and 150 apartments, starting in the winter or spring. Work has started on the garage.

Gmul plans to turn the newer section, which opened in 1983, into 54 condominiums ranging in price from $190,000 to $500,000. The condominiums will not be eligible for tax-exempt financing, Everett said.

The agency's board of directors could not vote on the application because a required review of the project's environmental impact has not been completed.

Gary Knapp, a financial adviser to the project, said General Electric Capital Corp. has agreed to buy the bonds and will provide financing for other parts of the project, too.

The Hotel Syracuse closed in May 2004 after years of financial difficulties under several owners. Gmul bought the complex last year from First Bank of Oak Park, of Illinois.

http://www.syracuse.com/flags/72/biz_060823_wegmans72.jpg
Super-Wegmans just opened, offcially "Store #1" in the company portfolio. And the DeWitt store is going to be expanded to be the largest in the chain.

Ex-Ithacan

Aug 23, 2006, 11:17 PM

Sure would be nice for the old hotel to come back from the brink. And it seems that tax abatements are the best friend of downtown density now. Of course there are groups that hate tax abatements because they think the public is financing these projects. But the projects wouldn't be economically viable without them. And they will eventually be paying their full tax burden instead of sitting empty with no chance of the city getting any money.

Visiteur

Aug 28, 2006, 3:18 PM

As some of you may have heard, SU plans on building a connective line between it and downtown to improve...uh....coonnectivity. This was in today's paper. Unfortunately, I am no longer in syracuse, and have no access to a Syracuse newspaper (believe me, I've tried---you'd think the Ithaca libraries and newsstands would carry the Post-Standard).

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1156755304278020.xml

Syracuse University today will unveil design concepts by four teams for the Syracuse Connective Corridor.

And the university wants to know what you think of them.

The teams were selected as finalists for their ideas for the proposed project that is to link SU and downtown with a pedestrian walkway and bus route. Exhibitions of their ideas will be displayed at five downtown spots, including the National Grid building on Erie Boulevard and the Everson Museum of Art this month and next.

<article continued on site>

Ex-Ithacan

Aug 28, 2006, 8:06 PM

Hey Vis, did you try the Cornell Library? Hard to believe they wouldn't have the Post-Standard. Guess I'll try News10Now too to see if they've got anything on it.

Visiteur

Aug 29, 2006, 5:56 PM

As A matter of fact, I did. They have most major metro papers, as well as ROC and Bflo, but they don't carry the Post-Standard. I was flabbergasted.

Visiteur

Aug 30, 2006, 3:09 PM

Let's hope this has a positive impact...

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1156929559253660.xml&coll=1

Syracuse plans tax break for homes
Investing in or improving property could cut thousands of dollars off tax bill.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
By Greg Munno
Staff writer
When Kerry Quaglia visited Cleveland a few years ago, he marveled that new, $200,000 homes near a public housing development were selling like hotcakes.

"I couldn't figure it out," said Quaglia, the executive director of Home HeadQuarters, the nonprofit that works to improve local housing and increase homeownership rates. "Then I got the answer: The city of Cleveland was exempting the homes from property taxes for five years. For five years, those homeowners paid no city taxes."

Syracuse is proposing a similar plan to both encourage new home construction and home improvement in the city.

Advertisement

Although notquite as generous as in Cleveland - the improvements to property in Syracuse would be fully exempt from taxes for a year, and then would be partially exempt for four years - it is a broader exemption than many cities offer in New York state.

Syracuse is proposing to exempt from taxes improvements to almost any residential dwelling, from single-family homes to multi-unit apartment buildings. Albany, Auburn, Cortland, Oswego and Oneida either have a more limited exemption or no exemption, according to the assessors in each of those cities.

Syracuse would also be the only one of those cities to offer a tax break on new homes built on vacant land. So someone could build an expensive home on a lot worth $5,000, and pay taxes only on the original $5,000 assessment for a year. It would be six years before the city fully taxed the improved property, according to John Gamage, the Syracuse assessor.

Home HeadQuarters has recently started building new homes on vacant lots. Quaglia said this program will definitely make its homes more attractive to buyers inside and outside of the city.

"From a salesperspective, I would probably lead with the idea that the property would start off tax-exempt," Quaglia said. "As I saw in Cleveland, it can make a big difference in people's minds. So, too, will the idea that improvements to existing homes will get a break. A lot of people have told me over the years that they decided against doing a home-improvement project because they were worried about how it would affect their assessment."

There will be a public hearing on the proposal Sept. 11, and the Syracuse Common Council will vote on it later that afternoon. It is expected to pass, as the council last year formally asked the state to allow it to offer the exemption.

"I very much support this program and see it as a way to stimulate rehabilitation and home improvement," Councilor-at-Large Van Robinson said.

It's unclear how the exemption will affect the city's bottom line. "But we feel we can't afford not to do this as we have a lot of vacant and sub-par property and we want people to invest in those properties," Gamage said.

Quaglia said he thinks the program will end up helping the city collect more tax money.

"If it stimulates investment the city wouldn't otherwise see," he said, "then in the long run it will help city tax collections."

Meanwhile, since I don't feel like posting the articles, two sit-down restaurants are building new fanschises, as well a a Target in a north suburb and a Lowe's and a credit union in an east suburb. and a car dealership downtown is expanding and adding ten positions.

Ex-Ithacan

Aug 31, 2006, 11:22 AM

Not quite sure how to feel about this. Seems like a good idea on paper, I guess we'll just have to wait and see the results.

Visiteur

Sep 7, 2006, 3:45 AM

Boo, that's the first time I ever double-posted...

Visiteur

Sep 7, 2006, 3:45 AM

This article contains both good news and development compilations! Yay!

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1157534300213530.xml

City seeking millions in grants
Money from state would go for restoration projects, including Hotel Syracuse.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
By Peter Lyman
Staff writer
The city of Syracuse is seeking up to $5 million in grants to support several ongoing urban restoration projects under the "Restore NY" program, a new state initiative announced last month.

The projects include plans to restore The Hotel Syracuse and the Wilson Building on South Salina Street and demolish the Public Safety Building jail, David Michel, the city's economic development commissioner, said Tuesday.

The grant application is due in Albany by Sept. 15, and a public hearing on the matter must be conducted by the end of the month. The grants are likely to be announced sometime in October, Michel said.

"We have a very short time frame" to prepare the application, Michel said. "We're told there will be another round (of Restore NY grants) in the spring."

At 1 p.m. today, Michel will meet with members of the Common Council's Economic Development Committee to discuss the application. The council will schedule a public hearing on the matter at its regular meeting next week, said Councilor Kathleen Callahan, who chairs the committee.

There is $50 million available statewide in the first round of Restore NY. A total of $300 million has been appropriated for the program.

The city is asking for $5 million because "that's the maximum we can apply for" in the first round, Michel said. The city is unlikely to get the full amount, he said.

The city application will focus on "projects that are already up and running and need some additional dollars," Callahan said.

Here are the projects the city plans to include in its application:

Hotel Syracuse: $2 million for asbestos removal and demolition as the building is refurbished into a 150-room hotel. The developer will provide local matching funds.

PSB jail: $2 million to remove asbestos and demolish the former jail on South State Street, which will be replaced by a parking structure.

Wilson Building:

$350,000 for interior demolition and removal of hazardous materials. Developer Adapt CNY plans to restore the vacant city-owned building with one floor of retail space and 33 residential units.

Cherry Hill demolition:

Developers have the money to build 50 affordable-housing units on the site of the closed housing project on East Genesee Street, but they need additional money to demolish the building and remove asbestos.

124 Burnet Ave: Cabinet Fabrication has purchased and renovated the building for its business. An additional $200,000 in state money is being sought for renovation of the upper floors. The owner will provide a local match.

Sims Matchplate demolition: $50,000 to demolish vacant buildings at Beattie Street and Erie Boulevard East.

Best Buy to plug in at Marshalls Plaza

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-4/1157535207213530.xml&coll
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
BOB NIEDT
RETAIL NOTEBOOK
DeWitt: Say hello to Best Buy.

Friday, the consumer electronics superstore is opening its second location in Onondaga County. The other is anchored in Carousel Center mall and has been for eight years.

This new Best Buy has been built into a good chunk of the building that was a Toys "R" Us.

That's at 3405 Erie Blvd. E., fronting Marshalls Plaza.

It's the 35th store in New York for the retailer based in Minnesota. The first of its stores in New York opened in 1998 in Carousel Center.

This new store slips into some 30,000 square feet, one-third smaller than the Carousel store, which has about 45,000 square feet of space.

Like its older cuz, the DeWitt store will sell computers, appliances, home theater technology, mobile electronics and wireless technology.

The entertainment software area offers more than 25,000 CD titles, 20,000 DVD titles and 1,000 computer software titles.

Geek Squad services will be offered for computer installation and support. There also will be a mobile installation area, and delivery is available from the store for appliances and home theaters.

The store employs 100 people and joins seven other Best Buy stores nationwide for a Friday opening. Enter at 10 a.m.

Express checkout

Brief stuff and what not:

E-mail: David Mittiga writes, "Bob, any news about the new building at the intersection of Terry Road and Onondaga Boulevard in Westvale? It looks like it could house three or four businesses. Thanks."

I've been keeping an eye on that sharp new building that replaced a broken-down barn. I've seen no signs of activity as far as businesses moving in. Final touches seem to be going into the building as a whole and into the landscaping. I'm thinking that because of the location, likely much of what will go in there revolves around service-oriented retailers.

E-mail: Katherine McNall writes, "Bob, What's going on with the former Wal-Mart space in Fairmount Fair? I heard rumors about a Target or Panera Bread taking its place. Any truth in that?"

Absolutely. The Target rumor is no rumor. Target is scheduled to start building a store in Fairmount, on and around the former Wal-Mart footprint. Panera was on board quite some time ago for a Fairmount restaurant, but it might be landing elsewhere in the area. It is coming, however.

Store Front also runs Friday and Sunday in The Post-Standard, and the aforementioned blog is updated frequently. Contact Bob Niedt at bniedt@syracuse.com or www.syracuse.com.

Ex-Ithacan

Sep 7, 2006, 10:55 AM

^ Good stuff Vis. I wonder how much of the Restore NY grant money the city will actually get. Thanks for the info.

Visiteur

Sep 8, 2006, 3:49 PM

Some very good news to report:

http://www.syracuse.com/flags/332/biz_060908_jc_armory.jpg
Developer Wants to Build Huge Armory Square Project
Friday, September 08, 2006
By Tim Knauss
Staff writer
The chief executive officer of The Pioneer Cos. says he's planning to spend $70 million to $90 million to build a mix of housing, retail and office space on two parking lots he bought last week near Armory Square.

But first he's looking for ideas.

So Michael P. Falcone is sponsoring a class this fall at the Warehouse, the downtown quarters of Syracuse University's School of Architecture. The Warehouse sits between the two lots.

Ten architecture students participating in the semester-long "Pioneer Studio" will develop designs for the buildings, at least one of which Falcone hopes to use as a basis for his project. Falcone said he's given the students little direction beyond asking them to consider a mix of apartments or condos, retail and office space, and possibly student housing.

He's hoping for results that are "completely different than anything that's been done here," he said. "They're going to give the market something that they haven't seen before."

To help teach the class, Falcone paid to bring in innovative Manhattan architect Lindy Roy, founder and principal of ROY Co., whose projects include the chic Andre Balazs Hotel QT in Times Square.

Roy will fly in every two weeks to meet with the class, which she teaches in collaboration with Ted Brown, an SU architecture professor. Falcone will meet regularly with the students, who include a mix of graduate students and fourth-year undergraduates.

"It's definitely my most exciting class," said Jason Evans, a fourth-year student from LaFayette. "I can't wait to keep working on it."

After the class concludes in December, Roy will continue working with Falcone to help develop the project.

It's not unusual for the architecture school to bring in visiting experts to help teach "studios," which are practical courses arranged around the design of a project, said Mary Kate O'Brien, speaking for the school.

But it is unusual for the project to be a real one.

"It's very rare," Roy agreed. "It's a pretty fantastic opportunity." Roy said she knows Falcone from working with him on potential projects in New York City. The Pioneer Cos. closed last week on the purchase of the two former E.M. O'Donnell parking lots, Falcone said. He declined to reveal the price.

The lots will remain open for parking, operated by Murbro Parking, until a decision is made about the development, Falcone said.

Both lots are visible from the design studios in the Warehouse. One extends from Franklin Street west along Washington Street to the north side of the Warehouse. The smaller lot is across Fayette Street from the Warehouse, bounded by Onondaga Creek and Walton Street.

Syracuse University bought the Warehouse, a former furniture company storage facility, last year as part of Chancellor Nancy Cantor's plan to strengthen ties between the university and downtown. The architecture schoolis using the building temporarily while its on-campus facility is renovated.

Other university programs will use the space after the architecture school moves out.

Falcone said zoning regulations would permit development of about 400,000 square feet on the two parking lots. By comparison, the nearby six-story AT&T building at 250 S. Clinton St., which Pioneer built in 1990 and where it still has its offices, comprises about 220,000 square feet.

Visiteur

Sep 10, 2006, 3:17 PM

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-

Downtown living on rise in Syracuse
More than 100 new apartments could help spur revitalization, experts say.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
By Tim Knauss
Staff writer
Kristy and Michael Frame moved two months ago from a duplex in suburban DeWitt to a loft apartment in downtown Syracuse.

They are among roughly 175 people expected to move downtown this year into newly built apartments. According to some experts, such "reverse migration" from suburb to city - if it picks up steam - could go a long way toward revitalizing Syracuse and the region.

"It has a huge, huge, positive impact," said Donovan Rypkema, owner of Place Economics, a real estate and economic development consulting company in Washington, D.C.

The Frames' two-bedroom apartment, newly made in a renovated four-story historic warehouse, is a little more than half the size of their duplex.

The rent, $960 a month, is more than they paid in DeWitt. But it includes heat, cable and Internet, so their total housing cost should remain about the same, Kristy Frame said.

Besides, the apartment is "really neat," she said.

The floors are the building's original concrete, but stained and polished to a high gloss that resembles charcoal gray marble tile. The ceilings, also original concrete, are 13 feet high and still show the imprint of the wooden planks used to form them in 1912.

A window covers more than 100 square feet of the apartment's south wall.

Kristy, 22, said she and husband Michael, 27, decided they would enjoy living downtown with other young professionals. They moved to the Lofts on Willow, a 48-unit development on Willow Street, one block from Clinton Square.

"We kind of wanted to live downtown, to be where things are happening," she said.

Eight downtown building renovations have been completed this year, or are nearing completion, yielding 103 new apartments, according to the Downtown Committee of Syracuse. On average, there are roughly 1.7 residents per apartment, said Merike Treier, an economic development specialist at the Downtown Committee.

The apartments are filling up quickly, developers say, at rents ranging from $525 to more than $2,700 a month. The Lofts on Willow, where rents average about $800, started leasing in July and is more than half full, developer Douglas Sutherland said.

The success of those projects has developers, politicians and others hoping for what Mayor Matt Driscoll calls a "snowball effect," a growing number of similar projects that could gradually revive downtown by filling it with residents.

"It creates confidence," Driscoll said. "People have seen the success. They know it works."

The city center is still a long way from the vibrancy of its heyday. Bill Harper, owner of the Coffee Pavilion in Hanover Square, said there are not nearly enough downtown residents to support his business.

Said Harper: "We would go out of business if not for the festivals" in Clinton Square, which draw people downtown.

But developers have shown that there is pent-up demand for urban living from young professionals and older ones, from empty nesters, graduate students and others. The number of developers undertaking renovations is growing. Several projects are on the drawing boards for this year and next.

Downtown good for region Experts say luring residents back downtown is a key to economic revival.

In a speech to the Onondaga Citizens League in May, Bruce Katz, a vice president of the Brookings Institution and an expert on strengthening metropolitan economies, said re-establishing Syracuse's urban core is important for the economic vitality of the region.

He proposed a "near-term goal" of having 1 percent of the metropolitan population, about 6,500 people, live downtown.

"When this goal is realized, its effects will be powerful," he said.

About 2,500 people reside in the area defined as "downtown," between I-690, I-81, Adams Street and Onondaga Creek, according to the Downtown Committee.

Set against Katz's goal, the recent wave of apartment renovations represents mere baby steps, said developer Sutherland.

"But sometimes the baby steps are the hardest ones to take," he said. Convenient place to live Lawyer Bob Durr, 48, recently rented a two-bedroom luxury apartment at The Amos, a Clinton Square building that had been mostly vacant for decades before developers Dan Queri and Mark Congel built 19 apartments there.

Durr said he lives downtown mainly for convenience. He can walk to work. He likes the proximity of his home to the county courthouse, to restaurants and to other attractions.

"There are days when I don't even have to move my car," he said.

Durr pays $1,800 a month, which includes on-site parking, cable TV and Internet service.

It also includes the services of Jason Krohl, the building's concierge, who will take clothes to the dry cleaners, drop a car off at the repair shop or deliver a resident to the airport.

"The service there is very, very good," Durr said.

Queri said he and Congel aimed to create an "amenity-based" residence that would lure affluent, long-term residents.

In addition to an on-site fitness room, the developers established an upscale food store on the ground floor, where residents and other downtown shoppers can buy gourmet groceries and prepared meals. They intend to lease another ground-floor location to a salon and day spa.

Apartments in The Amos start at $1,600, and the most expensive rent for more than $2,700, Congel said. Fifteen of the units are leased.

Affluent baby boomers are a strong market, said Laurie Volk, co-managing director of Zimmerman Volk, a New Jersey company that evaluated the Lofts on Willow project for Sutherland and his partners.

As it happened, the proximity of the Willow Street project to an auto repair shop and the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que led Volk to recommend targeting a more youthful clientele. But large numbers of baby boomers are nearing retirement, have sent their children off to college or work and want to scale down and go urban, Volk said.

Indeed, the growing bubble of baby boomer retirees will coincide with the so-called "millennial" generation reaching young adulthood, creating a twofold market for downtown residential development over the next 10 to 15 years, Volk said.

Tax breaks help projects But the market still needs help, local developers say.

Developers who renovate historic buildings often can take advantage of federal tax credits, which help offset the cost of the project, said Sutherland, who spent about $6 million renovating the Lofts on Willow. But the federal tax credits aren't enough to make the projects financially sound, he said.

That forces developers to seek other assistance property tax breaks, grants and so on and there are limits to what cities can dole out, he said.

Cities that have seen rapid downtown redevelopment such as Providence, R.I., and St. Louis, Mo. are in states that offer attractive tax credits that can be layered over the federal credit, Sutherland said. New York's recently enacted tax credit is more limited, he said.

Katz, of the Brookings Institution, said revitalizing downtown is about more than image and aesthetics. Population density enhances labor productivity and fosters innovation, critical factors an the increasingly knowledge-based economy, Katz said.

Suburban sprawl, on the other hand, creates fiscal strain by making inefficient use of the urban infrastructure roads, pipes and wires and by wasting rural resources, such as farms and undeveloped land.

Rypkema said downtown residents spur retail development to a greater degree than downtown employees.

Assuming a variety of retail services are available, a downtown worker spends $2,500 to $3,000 a year downtown, on average, Rypkema said. A downtown resident will spend three or four times that much, he said.

Developer Bob Doucette said he and partner George Curry took a big chance two decades ago when they renovated the Hogan Block and Labor Temple buildings into retail space and 30 apartments, the first major project of that sort downtown. There is little doubt that bringing residents to that area was a key element in reviving Armory Square, he said.

"Residences drive retail," he said. "You give me 6,000 people, put them downtown, and I'll show you some retail."

Ex-Ithacan

Sep 10, 2006, 5:08 PM

Good stuff vis. Glad to see there's a food market in place (one thing downtown Ithaca needs). I hope this will help spur more development in the 'cuse.

Peanut

Sep 11, 2006, 2:58 AM

The question is if Syracuse is actually see'ing people move back downtown, How long before we see a new upscale apartment or Condo downtown? Living in Honolulu its interesting to keep see'ing New High rises being built downtown. Hell Downtown Honolulu pretty much has all the ammenities of the suburbs, a d-town Wal-mart, restaurants all over downtown, lots of grocery/drug stores.

Visiteur

Sep 12, 2006, 3:21 PM

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-

Liquor distributor to build facility in Salina
Southern Wine & Spirits to spend $19M on structure near Syracuse China plant.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
By Rick Moriarty
Staff writer
A major national liquor seller plans to build a $19 million distribution facility on Court Street in Salina, replacing a leased facility in Clay.

Southern Wine & Spirits of Upstate New York Inc., a subsidiary of Southern Wine & Spirits of America Inc., plans to build the 250,000-square-foot facility on a 37-acre site just east of the Syracuse China plant.

Laurence Chaplin, administrative vice president of the liquor distributor, said Monday the deal is subject to the purchase of the site from Libbey Inc., owner of Syracuse China.

The purchase is expected to occur soon. Chaplin said Southern Wine, based in Miami, hopes to start construction Nov. 1 and have the facility operating by Sept. 1. The project will require the relocation of three Lyncourt Little League fields.

The facility will not result in new jobs. The company employs 135 people at a distribution facility it has leased since last year at 4530 Steelway Blvd., Clay, and at administrative offices at AXA Tower II in downtown Syracuse. That number will not change when both operations move to Court Street, Chaplin said.

"The people are already in place," he said.

The facility will, however, give Southern Wine a permanent presence in Onondaga County. When it came to the county last year, it looked for a building it could buy, but it could not find one that met its requirements. So it decided to lease the building in Clay while it continued to look for a permanent location.

Founded in 1968, Southern Wine and Spirits of America is the single largest distributor of wine, spirits and beer in the United States and employs more than 8,000 people. Chaplin said it does business in 27 states.

Its Onondaga County operations serves retailers of alcoholic beverages and related products throughout Upstate and parts of Downstate.

Chaplin said the company chose the Court Street site because it is centrally located, has room for expansion and is in a state Empire Zone, which will make the project eligible for a host of state tax credits.

The company has applied to the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency for exemptions from sales taxes on construction materials and from the mortgage recording tax.

Donald Western, the county's economic development director, said the agency will consider giving the company a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement, providing exemptions from property taxes. He said he had not yet calculated the value of the tax exemptions.

The agency has scheduled a public hearing on the company's application for 3 p.m. Oct. 10 in the mezzanine room at Salina Town Hall, 201 School Road.

Three Lyncourt Little League baseball fields a full-size field with 90-foot base paths and two smaller ones, with 60-foot base paths will be lost to the project. But Chaplin said the company has agreed to donate money he declined to say how much to the league to replace the fields.

"When we first started looking at this site, people in the community told us how important the fields were to them," he said. "We approached the Little League. An economic arrangement was made, subject to closing of the deal. The Little League was very happy with what we're going to do."

Lyncourt Little League President Pete Barnello said the arrangement gives the league an opportunity to build a complex, possibly with batting cages and a concession stand.

"They've been very, very cooperative with us," he said. "They're definitely on our side. They're going to be very supportive of the community."

The league is hoping to rebuild the fields on the western side of the Syracuse China plant, next to the Lyncourt School, he said.

Syracuse China has allowed the Little League to use its land east of its plant since 1952 free of charge. The league has seven baseball fields there. Four of the fields will not be affected by the Southern Wine project.

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-2/115805027242250.xml
Land sought in sewer project
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
By John Mariani
Staff writer
Onondaga County environmental officials are seeking to offer nearly $900,000 for property and easements for the Harbor Brook Sewer Improvement Project, including almost $380,000 to the developer of Carousel Center.

The developer, Pyramid Co. of Onondaga, would be offered $376,000 to sell and give easements on four parcels the company owns on State Fair Boulevard and two neighboring parcels on Rusin Avenue, if the county Legislature agrees to a resolution sought by the Water Environment Protection Department.

The site is where Water Environment Protection plans to build the Lower Basin Regional Treatment Facility as part of the $55 million Harbor Brook sewer project. The project is part of the county's effort to fulfill a court agreement to keep sewage out of Onondaga Lake.

The department also proposes to give Pyramid $2,350 for easements on company land at 1027 Hiawatha Blvd. W., according to the resolution reviewed and approved Friday by the Legislature's Environmental Protection Committee.

Joseph E. DeRose would get the second-biggest chunk of money, $265,000, if he agrees to sell three properties he owns on Grand Avenue. Water Environment Protection also seeks two other Grand Avenue parcels and a church on Delaware Street which, when combined with the DeRose properties, would become the site of the project's Upper Basin Treatment Facility.

The city of Syracuse would get the most money, $66,400, among the 10 property owners from whom Water Environment Protection would seek easements. The county proposes paying $36,000 to the city for easements at Fowler High School and $14,400 to use Frazer Park.

The Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to take up the resolution today. If it passes, the full Legislature will vote on it in October.

The measure would let County Executive Nicholas Pirro spend up to $894,850 to buy land and easements, and authorize the county attorney to seek condemnation if purchases can't be arranged.

The proposed prices are based on appraisals by Pomeroy Appraisal Associates, said John Clare, Water Environment Protection's manager for Harbor Brook.

Pyramid's proposed slice, the equivalent of 42 cents on each dollar to be spent on acquisition, is based on the commercial potential for the State Fair Boulevard site, department Commissioner Richard Elander said.

Syracuse Corporation Counsel David Garber, in a letter to the Legislature Sept. 5, protested that the plans would disrupt activities at Frazer Park and sports at Fowler, whose athletic fields would be crossed with a new sewer line. Work at Fowler also would interfere with the school district's lunch program, which ships 6,000 meals daily from the high school to 13 city schools, Garber wrote.

Clare said he was surprised by the city's position. The track of the pipeline through Fowler's property was negotiated with school district officials, he said, and engineers routed the path along the edge of Frazer Park.

Visiteur

Sep 16, 2006, 3:46 PM

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-5/1158312378179280.xml

'Impressive Growth'
Friday, September 15, 2006
By Charley Hannagan
Staff writer
The Syracuse metropolitan area's jobless rate in August was 4.4 percent, unchanged from year ago and a sign that the area's economy is improving, the state Department of Labor said.

Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties had 340,400 workers with 14,900 unemployed in August.

The 4.4 percent unemployment rate for the month ties the record for the lowest level of unemployment in August for the past five years.

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That's good news, said Roger Evans, principal economist with the state Department of Labor.

"It means that joblessness is trending down in Syracuse," he said.

Jobless rates this year have matched or been below rates for the state and nation. That's something the area couldn't say last year, Evans said.

"Growth has been quite impressive," he said.

The state reported a 4.5 percent unemployment rate in August; the U.S. rate was 4.6 percent for the month.

The size of the labor force, 340,400, and the number of employed residents, 325,500, are at record highs, Evans said.

Construction added 700 jobs over the year, another indication of a healthy economy, Evans said.

Public schools, which have been adding staff all year, gained 1,300 jobs compared to August 2005.

"Public school systems, on average, are growing," he said.

The low spot remains manufacturing, which lost 700 jobs compared with August a year ago. Those jobs losses can be attributed to job transfers and retirements at New Process Gear, the closing of small manufacturers, such as Martisco Paper, and layoffs, Evans said.

Visiteur

Sep 22, 2006, 3:26 PM

Okay, not a development, but this is a good laugh.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1158915909254550.xml&coll=1

What happens when a fake john meets a fake police officer?
Friday, September 22, 2006
By Robert A. Baker
Staff writer
A sting was nearly stung Thursday when a Syracuse police officer pretending to be a john met a suspected prostitute pretending to be a police officer.

It began when a male undercover officer was flagged down in the 100 block of Lodi Street by a female on the street, said Sgt. Tom Connellan, a Syracuse police spokesman.

Here's his account of what happened Thursday morning:

The woman got in the car and the two went to a nearby parking lot to negotiate a price for sex.

She asked the cop if he was a cop.

The officer said "no."

"That's OK, because I am," the woman told the officer as she pulled out handcuffs and a two-way radio.

The confused officer became downright bewildered when the woman barked a command into the radio: "Move in!"

The officer, concerned the woman was armed and looking to rob him, forced her from the car.

Moments later, officers who had been monitoring the situation arrived and grabbed the woman at a nearby intersection - with the radio and cuffs.

Who was on the other end of the radio?

To find out, a male officer pretending to be a female, used it:

"Hello?"

"Where are you?"

"Where are you?''

"At the base."

The base, it turned out, was an alley near the parking lot where police found a second woman waiting in a car.

"We believe these people were going to rob people or extort money," Connellan said.

He did not know if they had successfully used the scam in the past.

Lisa Greene, 31, of 119 W. Ostrander Ave., was charged with first-degree criminal impersonation, a felony, prostitution and fifth-degree conspiracy.

Elena Irwin, 20, of 1812 Valley Drive, identified as the woman waiting in the car, was charged with fifth-degree conspiracy and possession of a hypodermic needle.

Robert A. Baker can be reached at bbaker@syracuse.com or at 470-2182.

Ex-Ithacan

Sep 22, 2006, 4:38 PM

That's crazy. Would have made a great episode on Cops.:haha:

Visiteur

Oct 1, 2006, 2:28 PM

Sad.
http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-5/1159520863261910.xml&coll=1&thispage=2

". . . And nobody came"

Syracuse City Hall tried to interest developers in a piece of property on Columbus Circle recently, but it got no takers.

The city put out a request for proposals to develop the vacant lot where the Powelson Building once stood. Nobody responded, said Colleen Deacon, speaking for the mayor's office.

The six-story Powelson Building was demolished in 2004, after standing vacant for years. A commercial office building constructed in the 1960s, the Powelson was never much to look at, but it was surrounded by some of the most beautiful architecture in Syracuse the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Mizpah Towers, the Carnegie Building and the county courthouse.

"When you were up in the tower and looked out, you felt like you were in Rome," said developer Douglas Sutherland.

But the cost of building a new structure downtown still exceeds the potential rents, Sutherland said, which is why most developers are focusing on renovating existing buildings, which are about 25 percent cheaper. Even so, the empty lot will probably attract investors someday if the redevelopment of downtown continues, he said.

Deacon said city officials have not yet decided whether to issue another RFP or hold off.

Staff writer Tim Knauss reports on real estate for The Post-Standard. To contact him, call 470-3023, fax 470-2142 or send e-mail to tknauss@syracuse.com

Meanwhile, an EZ Home (10,000 sq.ft), Dunkin' Donuts, Mr. 2nds, and toher suburban assets are sprouting in the burbs. I'm not smiling though.

Visiteur

Oct 7, 2006, 3:46 AM

Fluff economic story!

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-5/116012606390030.xml

Kingston, Ont., Syracuse discuss alliance
Initiatives to promote tourism and economic development are on table.
Friday, October 06, 2006
By Rick Moriarty
Staff writer
Business leaders in the central Upstate region have talked a lot over the past year about creating Õ7RosenÕ alliances between companies and universities. The city of Kingston, Ontario, wants in on those discussions.

Kingston Mayor Harvey Rosen and Deputy Mayor Bittu George traveled to Syracuse Thursday to promote economic development and tourism initiatives between the two cities.

"Geographically, we share a common area," Rosen said. "We share a common climate. We already have some connections, and we can build on that. The border is a political line."

Rosen met in the morning with representatives of the Syracuse Convention & Visitors Bureau, then with Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll at City Hall and in the afternoon with the board of directors of the Metropolitan Development Association, an economic research and planning group.

Kingston sits on the northeast tip of Lake Ontario, 130 miles north of Syracuse. It takes about 2 hours and 50 minutes to drive between the two cities. Kingston is a bit smaller than Syracuse. Its population is 114,195, compared with Syracuse's 146,435.

Besides a similar climate, the two cities have other things in common, Rosen said. Like Central New York, Kingston has institutions of higher education, including Queens University, St. Lawrence College and Royal Military College, Canada's West Point.

Queens University and Cornell University in Ithaca recently began sharing faculty, via video conferencing, in their masters in business education programs. Novelis Inc., a maker of aluminum, has a production plant in Scriba, in Oswego County, and a research and development facility in Kingston.

And like the Syracuse area, Kingston has had a challenge attracting venture capital, Rosen said.

Kingston, like Syracuse, has lost population, but Rosen said the city has started reversing the decline with new residential development in its downtown area. That has brought people back to the city and encouraged commercial growth, he said.

Rosen's visit was prompted by contacts between the Metropolitan Development Association and its Kingston counterpart, the Kingston Economic Development Corp.

Tom Blanchard, assistant to the president of the Metropolitan Development Association, said the group welcomed the chance to explore opportunities for alliances with Kingston, just as it has with communities in northern New York.

"Our view of the region is larger than Syracuse and Central New York," he said.

In other news...
-As a Harley-Davidson dealer continues a massive exspansion, five to ten permanent jobs will be created.
-A new chain restaurant has begun hiring, and development continues on a large suburban shopping center in Clay.
-And now, for the rant of the day:

"With $15 million in state grants almost in the bag, construction could start in the spring on the long-delayed 350-room, $72.3 million convention center hotel in downtown Syracuse.

The state subsidy received the necessary political approvals early this year, but the mechanics of channeling three $5 million grants to the project - one each from monies controlled by the governor, the state Senate and the Assembly - have taken six months to work out.

But with those bureaucratic details settled, construction is scheduled to start in April, with an opening expected in March 2009, said Donald Western, director of economic development for Onondaga County. "- P-S

What happened to a fall groundbraking! :hell:

Ex-Ithacan

Oct 10, 2006, 12:55 PM

Those grants are a b*tch to finally get. I have a friend doing that kind of stuff at a local DC non-profit, and he'd be pulling his hair out if he wasn't already bald.

I guess this means Ithaca is a part of central NY, eh Vis? ;)

Visiteur

Oct 10, 2006, 3:48 PM

Meh, assumed about as much. Ithaca, come join your bretheren! You call "DeWitt Mall" a mall? A mall should be an empty husk in a suburb, like Shoppingtown Mall!

Visiteur

Oct 12, 2006, 8:14 PM

http://www.syracuse.com/news/updates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/syr_poststandard/archives/2006_10.html#194101

AXA staying downtown
AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co. announced today it has signed a new lease for offices at AXA Towers, ensuring that the company and its work force of about 1,000 people will remain in downtown Syracuse through 2023.

The lease is for approximately 316,000 rentable square feet of space at 100-120 Madison St. It is for 15 years, starting when its current lease expires at the end of 2008.

Christopher M. "Kip" Condron, AXA's chairman and chief executive officer, made the announcement.

"This new lease ensures that our nearly 1,000 employees will remain at AXA Towers, continuing a relationship with the city of Syracuse that began in 1966," said Condron.

City officials had worried that AXA, one of downtown's biggest private-sector employers, might move out of the city after the company sought proposals from developers in 2004 for a new office building. It was known to be looking at sites in DeWitt.

In connection with the new lease, AXA said it will make a significant investment in its space, including a new cafeteria, conference center and data technology facility. The two-year remodeling project is expected to begin in 2007.

In addition to AXA's new tenant improvements, the property owner, Towers Realty Statutory Trust, has committed to refurbish certain common areas, including the lobbies and elevators, AXA said.

The company's presence in downtown Syracuse dates from 1966, when MONY Life Insurance Co. opened the first of the two 18-story towers, plus the connector wing. The second tower was completed in 1973.

In 1988, MONY engaged in a sale-leaseback transaction which culminated in its taking a 20-year lease on the property. That lease is set to expire Dec. 31, 2008.

AXA acquired MONY in July 2004 and took over the company's lease at the towers.

Visiteur

Oct 12, 2006, 8:22 PM

Holy development Batman!http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-5/1160643503294580.xml&coll=1&thispage=2

Big dream takes shape in Van Buren
$80 million sports park development is under way
Thursday, October 12, 2006
By Rick Moriarty
Staff writer
Here's a new twist for the Syracuse area: A big development that promises to draw people in large numbers from hundreds of miles away is being built.

The first phase of construction on an $80 million action sports park is well under way near Interstate 690 and the state Thruway in Van Buren.

The first building, an 87-room Wingate Inn hotel, quietly opened last week at Winchell and Walters roads.

The frame of a 50,000-square-foot building that will house a motocross racing track is up. It is scheduled to open in mid-November.

The park's developer, Action Developers Inc., said construction of an addition that will triple the size of an indoor paintball facility from 31,000 square feet to 92,000 square feet will start within 90 days. The facility opened in 2003. With the addition, it will have skateboarding, go-cart racing and BMX bicycle racing in addition to paintball contests.

A 400-seat motorsports-themed Quaker Steak & Lube restaurant, the first in the state, will be built at the same time the paintball facility is expanded, the developer says. Quaker Steak & Lube restaurants resemble 1950s-style filling stations on the outside. Inside, racing cars, sports cars and motorcycles hang from the ceiling.

Construction on the central attraction a water park housed in a 90,000-square-foot building is scheduled to start in early 2007 and open in late 2007 or early 2008. Land behind the Wingate Inn is being cleared for the water park.

Jacob Wright, a partner in Action Developers and its chief executive officer, said the water park will feature three surfing machines, a winding "lazy river," a 74-foot tall tube slide for eight-person rafts and winding "body" slides slides that don't use rafts.

The second floor of the building will contain restaurants and retail shops that overlook the water park.

A second hotel one with 200 rooms and a Mayan theme throughout will go up at the same time the water park is built, Wright said. Enclosed walkways will connect the hotels to the water park.

Action Developers estimates that the yet-to-be-named park, which will be open year-round, will draw 350,000 visitors a year. Both hotels and the water park have been designed so they can be easily expanded.

Wright said the sports park, located on a 50-acre site near Exit 5 of I-690, will be the only one of its kind in the country because it combines a water park with BMX and motocross racing, paintball and skateboarding.

He said the park will draw people from a 300-mile radius a market that reaches into Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Canada.

The park is being privately financed. Its developer has not sought government subsidies, though Wright said he might ask that it be put into a state Empire Zone, which would make it eligible for state income tax credits.

"We're plugging away," he said. "It's not easy financing. We're doing it in phases."

He said he might seek a payment-in-lieu-of-tax agreement. Such agreements usually provide discounts on property taxes for a specified period.

Action Developers says the facility will have a significant economic impact on the area, creating 896 full- and part time jobs in its first year of full operations and 110 full-time equivalent jobs outside the resort.

The developer announced its plans in January. So, by Syracuse-area standards, construction has gotten under way unusually quickly.

Wright attributes the speedy start to the fact the partners did a lot of homework before going public with their plans. The fact that they have not sought government grants or other subsidies has made the process go more quickly, he said.

"I've been working on the financing for one and a half to two years," he said.

Wright said he's not worried about the long-delayed Destiny USA retail, hotel and entertainment center in Syracuse cutting into his business. Wright said he figures Destiny, if it's ever built, will bring new customers to his sports park.

"If a big mall comes, that's great, and it would help us," he said. "I can't imagine it would hurt us."

Rick Moriarty can be reached at 470-3148 or rmoriarty@syracuse.com.

Ex-Ithacan

Oct 13, 2006, 2:31 PM

The last two posts are almost too good to be true for the 'cuse. What a boost in the arm the sports complex will be, and the fact that AXA decided to stay downtown must mean something right is going on. Thanks for the info Vis.:tup:

Visiteur

Oct 14, 2006, 2:48 AM

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-5/116073040774260.xml&coll=1

An Auburn manufacturer said Thursday it will move to Onondaga County and create jobs in its new building.

Allred & Associates Inc., a maker of carbon-fiber parts for a variety of applications, said it plans to build a 10,000-square- foot manufacturing and office facility at 317 Route 5 West, on the north side of the road, starting early next month. It plans to move into it early next year.

The company applied to the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency for exemptions from sales taxes on construction materials and furnishings, from the state mortgage recording tax and from property taxes. The agency estimates the value of the exemptions at $76,000 on the $1.25 million project.

Robert Walsh, vice president-operations for Allred, said the company employs about 25 people and expects to hire 16 to 25 more for assembly, technical and professional positions over the next three years.

The company's sales grew about 65 percent this year and will grow up to 30 percent in each of the next three years, primarily due to contracts with Syracuse Research Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp., he said.

Allred occupies two buildings in Auburn an administrative office downtown and a factory on York Street. Walsh said the company needs larger quarters and decided to move to Onondaga County to be closer to its customers and suppliers.

The company also wants to be able to tap Onondaga County's larger labor market, he said. Allred has been having trouble finding enough workers in Auburn, he said.

"To staff up, we're finding it difficult to attract the right set of skilled labor," he said.

Founded 10 years ago as a medical equipment designer, Allred moved into manufacturing carbon fiber parts for other manufacturers. Carbon fiber is an extremely strong but light material used in the construction of aircraft, spacecraft and military equipment.

A public hearing on the application is scheduled for 3 p.m. Nov. 6 at Elbridge Town Hall.

In other business Thursday, the agency:

Ö Voted 5-0 to approve tax exemptions for Southern Wine & Spirits of Upstate New York Inc.'s planned $19 million, 250,000-square-foot warehouse and liquor distribution facility just east of the Syracuse China plant on the north side of Court Street in Salina. The tax exemptions will total about $1.66 million over 10 years.

Ö Voted 5-0 to approve tax exemptions worth about $214,000 for Tessy Plastics Corp.'s $2.19 million, 42,262-square-foot addition to a warehouse at its plant at 488 Route 5 West in Elbridge.

Ö Voted 5-0 to exempt $1.5 million in machinery and equipment for a Dave Burdick automotive sales and service facility at a former movie theater complex at the former Penn Can mall in Cicero, which is a collection of car dealerships. The exemption will save JJK Development LLC, a company formed by Burdick, $120,000.

At an earlier meeting, the agency approved about $217,000 in sales tax exemptions for the $13.13 million project.

From an AXA-based article:

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who closely followed the negotiations between AXA and its landlord, said the insurance company might increase its work force in the buildings to 1,200.

Mary Beth Farrell, executive vice president of service delivery for AXA, said the new lease allows the company to expand its work force in the towers. But she said there has been no decision by the company to do so.

"The options are there," she said.

Farrell said AXA was "proud to make this commitment to downtown Syracuse."

"This central location is a great benefit for our employees, and the planned space renovations will ensure that they will have the right work environment for the duration of our new lease," she said.

And in other news, a new convienience store, two new restaurants ( one replaced a vacant car dealership), two new fast food restaurants, a new "Children's Fitness Center" and a new small-scale retail complex in the north suburbs and one in the east suburbs.
:cheers:

JManc

Oct 14, 2006, 7:44 AM

one of my brothers is moving to syracuse. yay!

Ex-Ithacan

Oct 14, 2006, 1:38 PM

^^ holy smokes, the good news continues for Syracuse. Who'd a thunk it. Thanks for the good news Vis.

Hey jman, where is your brother moving from?

JManc

Oct 14, 2006, 11:55 PM

my parents' basement in utica.

Visiteur

Oct 15, 2006, 10:08 PM

http://www.upstate.edu/biocenter/gifs/building1.jpg

SUNY upstate/ESF project(20 million in state development funds approved)

http://www.upstate.edu/biocenter/gifs/map.gif
http://www.upstate.edu/biocenter/gifs/facility2.gif

The building’s 240,000 sq. ft will serve:
40 faculty as principal investigators, 80 postdoctoral fellows, 90 graduate students, 75 undergraduate students, 5 industrial partners, 5 incubator partners, principal investigators:)

http://www.syracusecoe.org/images/2006/body_photo.jpg

And after five years, the Center of Excellence (CoE) has started construction on the demolished Smith-Corona building's site.

Ex-Ithacan

Oct 15, 2006, 11:59 PM

^ Impressive stuff Vis, thanks.

@ Jman - Probably gonna cost your Bro more money in Syracuse than he paid for the basement. :shrug:

JManc

Oct 16, 2006, 12:42 AM

i never heard of SUNY upstate.

Visiteur

Oct 16, 2006, 1:36 AM

SUNY upstate = Upstate Medical Center

Peanut

Oct 16, 2006, 8:55 AM

about freakin time.

JManc

Oct 18, 2006, 5:25 AM

SUNY upstate = Upstate Medical Center

oh ok. definitly know of that. went through a year or so of speach therapy there as a kid.

Visiteur

Oct 19, 2006, 11:22 PM

So, I'm at work today, and as I'm leaving, I decide to glance in our books department to see if I can find something new for my collection. While I'm looking, I come across this small, dark blue book, entitled:

"Hockey in Syracuse" by Jim Mancuso:sly:

So...

Jim Mancuso = jmancuso, p'raps?:D

JManc

Oct 20, 2006, 3:36 AM

lol, nope. i am jeremy but i do like the the syracuse crunch.

Ex-Ithacan

Oct 20, 2006, 9:17 AM

Those Mancuso folks really get around.

Visiteur

Oct 20, 2006, 6:11 PM

Aw, so much for my surprise...:rolleyes:

Now, I take this article with a grain of salt. But, there's hope some canny developers will use this knowledge to his or her advantage.;)

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-5/1161335031216860.xml&coll=1
Economy 'heating up'
Labor force largest since '92; job creators called champs
Friday, October 20, 2006
By Rick Moriarty
Staff writer

Central New York's jobless rate is getting so low and its job-growth rate is so strong that a challenge facing businesses is finding enough workers to fill openings, a state economist said Thursday.

"Things are starting to get a little stressed in labor force availability," Roger Evans, an economist and labor analyst with the Department of Labor, told about 600 people at the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce's Economic Champions luncheon at the Oncenter.

The Syracuse area's unemployment rate dipped to 4.3 percent in September, the lowest it has been since it was 4.3 percent in September 2001. The rate was 4.4 percent in August and 4.6 percent in September 2005.

The decline matched state and national trends. In September, New York's unemployment rate was 4.2 percent and the national unemployment rate was 4.4 percent.

There were an estimated 3,000 more jobs a nearly 1 percent gain in Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties in September than there were in the same month last year, according to the Labor Department report released Thursday.

Private-sector employers accounted for the entire gain. Government agencies lost 600 jobs during the same period.

The biggest gains came in private educational and health services, which were up 1,500 jobs. Other big gainers included the construction, natural resources and mining category (up 800 jobs), the trade, transportation and utilities sector (up 800), and professional and business services (up 500).

Manufacturing, a long-time laggard, was one of the few down spots in the report, losing 200 jobs.

"The economy is heating up," said Evans. "The job gains are across the spectrum except for manufacturing."

The area's labor force the total number of people who are working or are looking for work reached its highest point for any September since 1992.

With a population base that is essentially level, businesses will find it increasingly difficult to fill all the jobs that are being created, Evans said. In fact, the area is creeping close to full employment, he said.

Economists generally consider full employment the point at which the unemployment rate cannot go any lower to be at 2.5 percent to 3 percent, he said. Unemployment rates can never go to zero because there will always be people in-between jobs, graduating from school and just starting their job searches, or chronically unemployed for any number of reasons.

The chamber handed out its "Economic Champions" awards to 229 companies at the luncheon. A list of the companies is available at www.syracusechamber.com. The award is given annually to companies that create jobs or invest money in new equipment and facilities.

Collectively, the 229 companies created 1,656 new jobs, invested $95 million in equipment and facilities, and started a number of new businesses, the chamber said.

Also at the luncheon, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, proposed a plan to expand wireless high-speed Internet access to homes, businesses and communities in Central New York and other parts of the state.

The plan would create a federal information resource for communities that are looking to create high-speed wireless networks. It also would create tax incentives for individuals and businesses that purchase broadband or Wi-Fi equipment.

New York is 31st among the 50 states in the percentage of households with an Internet connection, he said. There are 797 Wi-Fi hotspots in all of Upstate, and Schumer estimates there are 93 in Central New York.

He said the presence of more wireless networks would offer thousands of residents and businesses, especially those in areas that cannot ordinarily get high-speed access to the Web, the ability to use high-speed Internet anywhere.

He encouraged local communities to form public-private partnerships with businesses to create wireless networks. The communities would have to decide whether to charge user fees for access to the networks or use advertising revenues to pay the cost of the networks, he said.

Rick Moriarty can be reached at 470-3148 or rmoriarty@syracuse.com.

Ex-Ithacan

Oct 23, 2006, 11:08 AM

Pretty good news, but can upstate keep enough of the younger folks around to maintain the fresh minds for the future of the area?

Wheelingman04

Oct 23, 2006, 2:23 PM

How is Rochester and Buffalo doing? What about Albany?

JManc

Oct 24, 2006, 12:20 AM

How is Rochester and Buffalo doing?

crappy

What about Albany?

so-so

Visiteur

Oct 24, 2006, 12:21 AM

Wheelingman, I honestly don't know know much about those areas' economic progress, but I have heard that Rochester's economy was in the decline recently. Sorry I can't be of more help, but maybe SSC has something about those cities in its threads.

Meanwhile:
http://www.syracuse.com/news/updates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/syr_poststandard/archives/2006_10.html#197567

Paper mill in Pulaski to add work and jobs
Felix Schoeller Technical Papers Inc. is making a comeback in Pulaski.
One and a half years after the rise of digital photography forced it to lay off some of its workforce, the company announced today that it will add two lines and hire 125 people — more than half of them before the end of the year.
Richard Paterson-Jones, CEO of Felix Schoeller North America, said the company has found markets for its coated papers among printer manufacturers that justified spending $4 million on new equipment and adding jobs.
State and local officials attended the morning announcement in Oswego. The project will be aided by about $550,000 in state grants.
Also, Fulton’s Empire Zone Committee has agreed to add the plant to its empire zone, which if approved by the state, would double investment tax credits for the factory.

Dupli offers its employees $1,000 incentive to buy homes in Syracuse
Dupli Envelope & Graphics on Monday became the latest employer to offer an incentive to its workers to buy homes in Syracuse, according to Rep. James Walsh.

Dupli will offer $1,000 grants to any employee buying a home in the city. That money will be matched by federal Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative dollars, for a total incentive of $2,000. The money can be used for down payment costs, closing costs, home inspection fees, title insurance and attorney’s fees.

All full-time Dupli Envelope & Graphics employees who have been employed at Dupli for at least one year - regardless of income - are eligible to participate in the program. Dupli employs 120 individuals, most of whom are full-time employees. The purchased home must be a single-or two-family home or townhouse located within the city that will be used as the employee’s primary residence.

Other SNI-supported employer-assisted housing programs available in Syracuse and similar to Dupli’s include programs at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Health Center, Rural/Metro Medical Services of Central New York, Le Moyne College and Syracuse University.

Local employers interested in adding an Employer Assisted Housing Program to their benefits packages should contact Home HeadQuarters at (315) 474-1929, ext. 249 or via email at info@homehq.org.

Visiteur

Oct 24, 2006, 10:07 PM

http://development.downtownsyracuse.com/index.php

Very comprehensive website I found today. Includes approved,under construction projects, and recently completed projects, plus their sizes, dates of construction, estimated cost, and pictures (for most of them). Check the pdf for a picture of the new 500-car parking garage addition for Blue Cross-Excellus.

Ex-Ithacan

Oct 25, 2006, 10:06 AM

^Very cool sight indeed Vis. I like the Amos bldg renovation, and they've got a grocery store in there. (I wish Ithaca could put one in the first floor of the Cayuga garage)

Thanks for the link. btw, I saw a quick blurb on news10now that the final hurdle for Destiny has been passed. So I guess it's a go now, eh?

Visiteur

Oct 25, 2006, 7:22 PM

I expect to go like a CNY winter blizzard- long, treacherous and with many slips and delays.

Visiteur

Oct 27, 2006, 5:08 AM

:cheers:
http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-2/116185312547330.xml&coll=1&thispage=3
Plan would turn ex-theater into condos
Developer and city have agreed on price for building. Next step: public hearing.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
By Greg Munno
Staff writer
The city of Syracuse has reached an agreement to sell a University Hill landmark to a developer who plans to convert the building into condominiums.

If the Common Council approves, Norman Swanson will buy the former Temple Adath Yeshurun building - most recently the home of the Salt City Center for the Performing Arts - for $352,500.

Swanson said the 40,000-square-foot building on South Crouse Avenue can fit between 22 and 24 condos ranging from 1,500 to 3,200 square feet. He plans to sell the units to professionals who work for Syracuse University or one of the hospitals on the hill.

His plan calls for repairing the outside of the building. Construction on the building began in 1921 and was completed in 1922.

"We hope it looks a lot better than it does now, but we will leave the historic look of the building intact," said Swanson, the developer behind the successful Genesee Grande and Parkview hotel projects on East Genesee Street not far from the temple.

"The design of the exterior will not change," he said.

Swanson said he does not yet know how much the project or the condominiums would cost. That will depend on the results of a structural analysis of the building, which is under way, he said. He said drawings of the condo units and architectural plans for the project are also still being worked on.

City Economic Development Director David Michel said Swanson already has financing for the project and has shown the city a written agreement from lenders. That, along with Swanson's success with the Genesee Street hotels, gives the city confidence Swanson can turn his plan into reality, Michel said.

Swanson said he hopes to begin work on the temple within 30 days of taking ownership. He said the condos would be finished 12 to 24 months after that.

The council will hold a public hearing on the sale Nov. 6 and could approve the deal later that day.

The agreement between Swanson and the city calls for Swanson's Woodbine Group to pay the Syracuse Urban Renewal Agency $352,500, the amount of a recent real estate appraisal, Michel said. The agency, a tool of the city, would then pay the city the taxes it owes on the building, about $290,000.

The city did not formally seek development proposals for the building and did not advertise that it was for sale. Michel said the administration informally contacted several developers in 2004 after the performing arts center was forced from the building because of numerous code violations.

Swanson showed the most interest, and the city has been working with him since, Michel said.

Meanwhile, Syracuse resident Carlo Moneti submitted a plan in March to redevelop the property into a restaurant, bakery, performance space and art gallery.

By that time, the city was too far along in its negotiations with Swanson to consider another proposal, Michel said. He also said Moneti, a software developer, did not have development experience.

Moneti, though, said that if given a chance, he could have proved he had the resources to complete the project.

"All I wanted was a fair and open process," he said.

Councilor Stephanie Miner said that's what should have happened.

"There needs to be a well-established process that is adhered to in every instance," Miner said.

Still, Miner has not made up her mind on Swanson's proposal. "It could well be the right proposal for that property," she said.

Councilor Van Robinson said he is not particularly concerned about the process used to select Swanson.

"Norm Swanson is a very competent developer, and he will do a wonderful job," Robinson said. "So the question is about process. Approaching potential developers to discern interest in the building seems reasonable to me.

"I guess," Robinson added, "there is some question about how many people the administration contacted and whether all interested parties were aware the building was for sale. But at this point, it seems like the city is too far along to take a step back and issue an RFP," he said, referring to requests for proposals.

Councilor Kathleen Callahan said she likes Swanson's proposal for several reasons.

"It reaffirms that trend of developing residential units in Syracuse is still strong, and it starts to push the boundaries of that activity into areas beyond the city center, in a sense expanding what we consider 'downtown,' " she said.

Salt City co-founder Joe Lotito said he is disappointed the city is selling the building.

"It was always our intention to move back into the temple," Lotito said. "We've invested more than $600,000 in that building over the years, from putting in air conditioning to putting on a new roof."

Lotito, though, admitted that the performing arts group does not have the money to buy the building.

The temple is eligible for historic status but is not listed on either the state or national register of historic buildings, according to Michel.

The inscription above the main entrance of the building in Hebrew and English reads: "Open Ye the Portals of Righteousness. I Will Enter and Praise God."

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-5/116185354447330.xml&coll=1
Allred gains $100K grant for growth
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Staff report
Empire State Development Corp. has offered Allred & Associates Inc. a $100,000 grant toward construction of a facility in Elbridge and equipment for it.

In return, the company has promised to boost employment from 22 to 38 workers, said Tom Gillson, the corporation's vice president and regional director.

Allred has several business lines, including consulting on medical device design, making machines that make violins and specialty engineering and custom manufacturing of carbon fiber laminates and composites.

It plans to move from its offices and factory in Auburn to 317 Route 5 W., Elbridge. The project will cost $1.25 million.

Empire State Development will release half of the grant money once the company has spent $800,000 to buy land and build the project. It will release another $25,000 when employment reaches 30 and the remaining money when the work force reaches 38, Gillson said.

The company has asked the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency for exemptions from sales taxes on construction materials and furnishings, from the state mortgage recording tax and from property taxes. The agency valued the exemptions at $76,000.

Ex-Ithacan

Oct 27, 2006, 9:38 AM

^ Sounds like a good development, but I'm a bit iffy about the process to get the developer. He sounds like a can do guy, but I think there should have been a more open process to pick someone. Not that it actually sounds shady, but not completely above board either.

As far as the second bit of news, seems too bad that what's a boost to one upstate city comes at the expense of another upstate city. Oh well, I guess that's the times we live in.

Visiteur

Oct 28, 2006, 12:21 AM

From ManAboutTown on SSC:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data (1st Quarter - 2006). If you don't remember, QCEW is the real-world data that shows what's really going on, unlike those monthly estimates we hear so much about. All of you haters out there will be happy to know that the Rochester MSA did not fare well in the latest figures.

Between Q1-2005 and Q1-2006, the Rochester MSA lost 1,503 jobs (-.3%). In the same time period, the Buffalo-Niagara Falls MSA lost 830 jobs (-.2%), the Syracuse MSA gained 1,517 jobs (+0.5%), and the Albany MSA gained 1,454 jobs (+0.4%).

Visiteur

Oct 28, 2006, 3:36 PM

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1162025896326600.xml&coll=1
State money helps city projects
Aid goes to rehab Hotel Syracuse, Wilson Building, tear down Sims Matchplate.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
By BoNhia Lee
Staff writer
The city of Syracuse was awarded more than $2 million on Friday to fund several ongoing urban restoration projects under the Restore NY program, a state initiative created in August to help municipalities revitalize urban centers and encourage economic development.

The money will help rehabilitate The Hotel Syracuse and the Wilson Building on South Salina Street and demolish the Sims Matchplate building at Beattie Street and Erie Boulevard East.

"In the case of Hotel Syracuse and the Wilson Building, we have developers working on the projects, and this funding will help complete the financial packages for those projects," said David Michel, the city's economic development commissioner.

The Empire State Development Corp. received $300 million to implement the program statewide. The corporation received 155 applications and selected 75 projects in the first round of the initiative.

The city will work with businesses and developers on another list of projects for the second round of funding, Michel said.

Here are the projects to be funded:

Wilson Building: $350,000 to renovate the building into retail and housing. The Adapt CNY group is working to restore the vacant city-owned building.

Sims Matchplate Building: $50,000 for demolition. The money will be matched by Department of Environmental Conservation funding for demolition of the derelict property.

Hotel Syracuse: $1.7 million for asbestos removal and interior demolition that will help restore the historic building.

Ex-Ithacan

Oct 28, 2006, 4:57 PM

Glad to see the Hotel Syracuse bldg being saved, and the state helping out. It's a dandy old place.

Visiteur

Oct 31, 2006, 4:08 PM

http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-7/116228894452730.xml&coll=1

How city of Syracuse is trying to cut hassles for developers
After several complaints, city officials hope a new strategy will make it easier to do business.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
By Greg Munno
Staff writer
Chris Clemans had a dream and more than a million dollars to turn a run-down industrial site on Burnet Avenue into a gleaming showroom for his expanding cabinetry business.

Clemans took his plan to Syracuse economic development officials. He didn't need or want the city's help, but thought to keep them in the loop. The officials were impressed.

But that didn't mean smooth sailing for Clemans' mission to convert the former Caldwell & Ward Brass Co. buildings into a showroom and workshop for his CabFab business.

He battled with the city's zoning department for months over signage, which he specifically designed to replicate the old Caldwell sign; over parking, of which there is plenty; and over the removal of an old industrial metal door that marred the building's 1880 brick exterior.

In the end, the hassle cost Clemans about $100,000, delayed the opening of his showroom by three months and left him with the impression that the city did not welcome his investment.

But this is not a story about Syracuse's dysfunctional economic development apparatus. It is a story about how the city is trying to fix it.

Officials from Mayor Matt Driscoll's administration along with the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce recruited Clemans and other developers who had less-than-ideal interactions with the city to brainstorm ways to improve the system. Those sessions have led to several concrete changes.

The city has started "pre-development" meetings, where developers can sit down with representatives from all the city departments who might affect their project in order to get everyone on the same page about what is required.

It has instituted a new tracking system that will make the city more responsive to permit applications.

And the economic development department now assigns an account representative to large projects, giving the developer a point of contact.

That last idea was Clemans' brainchild.

"I'm very impressed that the city was willing to take a step back and look at ways to do things better, and even more impressed that they asked for input from people outside city government and took that input seriously," Clemans said.

At one of the city's new pre-development meetings held recently, city officials got their first look at a $2.6 million plan to restore the Walier Building at 755 N. Salina St.

Sitting around the table were eight city administrators, including Economic Development Director David Michel and Deputy Fire Chief Jeffrey Daly.

Joining them were three members of the development team: Architect Bruce Macknight, Construction Manager Joseph Donegan and Paul Williams, who at 24 years old is both an investor in the project and its local point person.

To the casual observer, the plans looked great. The building houses the St. Vincent de Paul Society thrift store on the ground level. The upstairs is being used for storage. The developers intend to convert the upstairs into 14 apartments, restore the historic ground-level facade that was lost long ago during an ill-conceived renovation, and rent the retail space to two high-end stores.

The administrators had some concerns. Acting Public Works Commissioner Jeffrey Wright wants to make sure the developers think through where they'll put snow. Deputy Director of Code Enforcement Nick Altieri thought the placement of two stairways in the building might not meet code. And Heather Lamendola of the Syracuse Onondaga County Planning Agency noted that since the building is within 500 feet of a state highway, the county board needs to review the plans.

Macknight and Williams both said they were glad for the feedback and found the meeting useful.

"A meeting like that is an absolute necessity to get everyone on the same page," Williams said.

Williams, who is from Denver and is working with two partners in Colorado, said he walked away from the meeting feeling that the city was welcoming him and his proposal.

But there are still other hurdles to overcome. Having to go before both the county and the city planning boards, for instance, adds another layer of unpredictability that makes it hard to develop a firm timeline for the project.

"It's hard to get on the phone to the guys in Denver and tell them we really don't know when we'll have the permits," Macknight said.

Dan Queri and Mark Congel know firsthand the difficulties of rehabilitating historic buildings. The two took on the Amos Building on Clinton Square, renovated the structure, converted the upstairs into 19 high-end apartments and rented out the ground floor to a grocery store downtown's first in years.

But they had to scale back the project significantly when they couldn't get the state historic preservation board to approve an expansion of the building. Then they got in a pickle when they discovered a gas station had once used the property. The state Department of Environmental Conservation ordered that they immediately remove an old fuel tank, and when they did, historic preservation officials took the pair to task for disturbing the site.

Queri ended up being one of the developers who helped guide the city through its economic development makeover, and both he and Congel support what's been done.

"Before, there really wasn't anything that could be called a 'process,' and no one was held accountable," Queri said. "It's not just about the developer getting information to the city, but the city needs to get a lot of information to the developer for a successful project to happen. There was just no accountability on that front. Now, everyone is in the same room at the same time hearing what is being said and promised."

Driscoll said that, as a small businessman before becoming mayor, he experienced many of the same frustrations the developers do when dealing with the city. After becoming mayor and hearing the complaints from others, he realized the city had to change the way it did business.

"I've been through it (as a businessman) and it is very, very painful," he said. "Every person in City Hall really needs to develop a customer service mentality. After all, they are being paid by the taxpayers. If a city worker is telling a developer about a code that has to be met, it needs to come along with the message 'we want you and we need you.' "

Greg Munno can be reached at gmunno@syracuse.com or 470-6084.

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