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Does anyone know what is going on with the Grange Building on Warren Street? There seems to be construction going on with the building.
According to the Onondaga County Real Property Tax website, the building was purchased for a mere $190,000 in August after languishing on the market for several years. The new owner is S&L Specialty Contracting of Syracuse. Open Atelier, a downtown architecturual firm that relocated to S. Warren Street from Cazenovia in 2010 is coordinating the redevelopment of the building which will feature apartments on the upper floors and retail on the ground floor. The project has been on the agenda of the city's Landmark Preservation Board on several occasions. Here are some meeting minutes:
(look for agenda item referencing 203 E. Water Street, the address of the Grange Building)
An interesting back story - according to a previous newspaper article the architect relocated to Central New York several years ago from the San Francisco Bay area. The man's wife, an equestrian originally from downstate Westchester County was attracted to the Syracuse area because of "Equine Alley," an area along Route 20 between Cazenovia and Morrisvillle with many horse farms and related businesses.
An interesting back story - according to a previous newspaper article the architect relocated to Central New York several years ago from the San Francisco Bay area. The man's wife, an equestrian originally from downstate Westchester County was attracted to the Syracuse area because of "Equine Alley," an area along Route 20 between Cazenovia and Morrisvillle with many horse farms and related businesses.
Well, we know who wears the pants in that family! My bad, sorry to all the ladies out there! I could not resist.
Btw RR, I have never heard of that area referred to as "Equine Alley". Interesting info., I like it! Thanks.
Based on the Syracuse Landmark Preservation agenda (Resubdivision: 700 Van Rensselear St/351 W. Bear St./300 W. Kirkpatrick St.), it seems the State has transferred the 28 acres over to COR (minus 6 acres of terminal land = 34 total) for work related to the inner-harbor development. I was encouraged by "D. Radke who asked B. Walsh to communicate to the developers the importance of the historic resources in the Lakefront area and to ask them to engage with the board as soon as possible regarding their plans. B. Walsh recommended that the board members read the RFP for the redevelopment of site so that the members would understand the goals of the project. The board agreed to recommend approval of the subdivision. D. Radke commended the City finally moving forward on the redevelopment of the Inner Harbor.' It seems that there is a strong committment and things should move forward sooner rather than later.[/SIZE]
Last edited by urbanplanner; 05-17-2012 at 12:12 PM..
I can see this going a long way in fostering infill development, particularly market rate housing. It may provide needed incentives that encourage residential development (not just rehab) in city neighborhoods, thus reducing suburban sprawl. I think Syracuse and Onondaga County are working well together on a number of issues, particularly urban revitalization and sustainability.
Last edited by urbanplanner; 05-19-2012 at 11:33 AM..
The Otisco Building at 900 North McBride Street in Syracuse will be demolished as early as Monday, as the building’s owners -- Home Headquarters and St. Joseph’s Hospital -- prepare the land for mixed commercial and residential use.
This past weekend I went on my first Downtown Living Tour. I was truly impressed with everything I saw and am excited for the amount of activity and construction the next year is going to see with residential development alone.
I had the opportunity to speak with Joe Hucko himself about the Merchant Commons project & I brought up the parking space situation on the first floor. He told me/showed me that the entrance to the parking space will be through bank alley, so it wont be getting in the way or blocking pedestrians walking along Fayette, which was great to hear. Mr. Hucko also told me that they plan to add some type of design or immages to enhance the streetscape as you walk by the parking section of the building, this way pedestrians arent simply looking at an indoor parking lot as they walk through downtown.
Despite the fact that we would all love to see more retail space going into thr Merchant Commons, I was encouraged by the conversation I had and I confidently believe this project will be a major catalyst for development along Waren Street.
One final thing:
It appears that the Hurbson Building redevelopment in Armory Square on Fayette Street is back on. At the tour, everyone was given pamphelts highlighting new projects that were occuring. It seems that the name of the project has changed.. it is now called "The Residences at Walton". I tried searching for any information online but couldnt come up with anything. According to the Downtown Committee Pamphlet, CRS Companies of Buffalo is still the developer. (By the way, the pamphlet was updated this past month so it is very recent) I havent seen any news on this project recently so I thought I would update everyone.
This past weekend I went on my first Downtown Living Tour. I was truly impressed with everything I saw and am excited for the amount of activity and construction the next year is going to see with residential development alone.
I had the opportunity to speak with Joe Hucko himself about the Merchant Commons project & I brought up the parking space situation on the first floor. He told me/showed me that the entrance to the parking space will be through bank alley, so it wont be getting in the way or blocking pedestrians walking along Fayette, which was great to hear. Mr. Hucko also told me that they plan to add some type of design or immages to enhance the streetscape as you walk by the parking section of the building, this way pedestrians arent simply looking at an indoor parking lot as they walk through downtown.
Despite the fact that we would all love to see more retail space going into thr Merchant Commons, I was encouraged by the conversation I had and I confidently believe this project will be a major catalyst for development along Waren Street.
One final thing:
It appears that the Hurbson Building redevelopment in Armory Square on Fayette Street is back on. At the tour, everyone was given pamphelts highlighting new projects that were occuring. It seems that the name of the project has changed.. it is now called "The Residences at Walton". I tried searching for any information online but couldnt come up with anything. According to the Downtown Committee Pamphlet, CRS Companies of Buffalo is still the developer. (By the way, the pamphlet was updated this past month so it is very recent) I havent seen any news on this project recently so I thought I would update everyone.
Anticipated Completion is for "Early 2013"
We'll see about Hurbson; could just be a rebranding published by the Downtown Committee (which probably is as slow to learn about bridge financing as the news media). As of today, there's no action on that site.
Living Tour was pretty cool, and it was nice to see some Saturday afternoon activity downtown for the second consecutive week (SU's commencement weekend, one week prior, saw a very different demographic of pedestrian than is usually strolling about). The featured condo at Mission Landing was particularly attractive.
Two things stood out at Merchants Commons. First, they've built out the larger of the two retail lay-outs depicted in renderings (the entire Warren frontage). That's a positive thing. Second, the original elevator lobby is really sweet in a Mad Men sort of way. Doubt they'll keep it, but it was neat to step into a long-abandoned office building and see that period marble and the '60s-era typefaces.
Also, in the spirit of the thread title, a couple construction updates:
The Warren Street sidewalk in front of the Grange Building is closed; looks like partial window replacement is taking place as part of the conversion.
The county's Water Street reconstruction is wrapping up behind City Hall and the state building. Much greener than it used to be; can't tell if it's becoming a one-way street.
Biotech center (now Biotech Accelerator in official parlance) has been wrapped for awhile; build-out looks reasonably far along. Sidewalks were poured last week, trees and landscaping were going in this morning. Doesn't look like the Irving Avenue reconnection is taking place during this phase of the Kennedy Square redevelopment - from where the curbstones and storm sewers are set, it looks like the Irving right of way is just going to serve as a widened driveway and drop-off area at this time.
Connective Corridor - portions of University that were finished last fall have been torn up again. Most of the south side of Genesee is torn up; wouldn't be shocking to see that section in various stages of incompletion in 12 months, in keeping with their theme of doing everything as inefficiently and slowly as possible. One positive: University finally has street trees planted on both sides (though the contractors don't seem to be working around them very carefully).
Mystery building at the corner of Townsend and Genesee: no action. Very curious to see what becomes of that building; it's really ugly, but it frames Fayette Park well and hopefully won't be demolished (as was proposed a few years ago).
Haven't been on campus in a couple weeks; I imagine Campus West is moving along and the new law building's mass earthwork should have begun.
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My bad, sorry to all the ladies out there! I could not resist. 
