This is interesting given that this is taking place primarily in what is historically a predominantly black middle class area of the city across the street from the campus(Salt Springs/Mountainview area). Parts of the 19th Ward in Rochester with U of R and RIT students and Hamlin Park with Canisius College students in Buffalo have dealt with the same thing and ironically are areas of those cities with a historically predominantly black, middle class presence as well.
Le Moyne College just bought 20 houses. Here’s what that means for the school and Syracuse:
https://www.syracuse.com/news/2023/0...-syracuse.html
"Le Moyne College last month bought 20 Syracuse homes -- all from one owner on the same day -- within a couple blocks of its campus on the eastern side of the city.
The $4.1 million purchase will likely take the 20 homes off the city’s tax rolls while making Le Moyne one of the largest landlords in its neighborhood.
The college bought the homes through a newly formed not-for-profit company named Phins Management Inc., a nod to the school’s dolphin mascot.
Joe Grasso, Le Moyne’s vice president for finance and administration, said the goal is to ensure the houses remain available to the 60 or so students who live in them each year. Maintaining off-campus housing so near to campus will help Le Moyne compete for students and retain older students, who don’t always want to live on campus, he said.
At the same time, the purchase fits in with the college’s larger goal of creating stronger ties with the neighborhood. Le Moyne plans to make repairs and upgrades to the exteriors and interiors of the homes, which will benefit the neighborhood, Grasso said.
“We’re investing quite a bit in terms of new roofs on a number of these house and new doors,†he said. “We’re trying to make them secure and just investing in the houses and taking care of the landscape in the neighborhood.â€
While acquiring 20 homes in one fell swoop was unusual for Le Moyne, owning off-campus homes and renting them to students is not entirely new for the college. Before its recent purchases, it had acquired 18 homes in the city and the town of DeWitt over a period of years.
Le Moyne is not the first college to acquire off-campus housing for students looking to move past dorm life. Over 14 years, Union College in Schenectady bought 23 houses along Seward Place, fixed them up and now rents them to students, effectively making the entire street part of its campus.
Syracuse University has gone even bigger. Instead of buying up homes, it bought a privately-built luxury student apartment building, The Marshall, on South Crouse Avenue for $69.4 million in 2021 and rents the eight-story, 287-bed complex to its students.
Le Moyne bought the 20 homes on July 25 from a Le Moyne graduate, Darren DiBiase, one of the area’s biggest landlords. DiBiase leased the homes, all in the Salt Springs neighborhood, to Le Moyne students for years.
“He could have sold these houses to a developer or an out-of-town real estate person, and it could change the character of the town,†said Grasso. “So instead of going to a real estate development company, we now own them.â€
Le Moyne, whose campus is mostly in DeWitt, has a four-year residency requirement for its 3,400 students, but it makes exceptions for those who commute from their parents’ homes. The school also permits some upperclass students who are not commuters to live off-campus.
Grasso said the college recognizes that some students do not want to live in dormitories once they enter their junior and senior years. Having those students live within just a block or two of campus may be the best of both worlds for them, he said.
“We’d really love the students to be on campus because it makes it easier for them to take part in activities that are part of the residential experience,†he said. “We feel these houses are really an alternative to living somewhere else in the city.â€
While the college wants greater ties to the neighborhood, Grasso said it has no plans to try to turn it into part of its campus like Union College did with an entire street.
“We’re not going to paint the houses, you know, green and gold,†he said.
The tax issue aside, city planner Owen Kerney said he supports the college’s purchase of the homes. He said the purchase and planned upgrades fit with the findings of a joint study conducted two years ago by the college, the city and the town to identify ways to improve the neighborhood areas that surround Le Moyne’s 160-acre campus.
The Le Moyne Area Neighborhood Development Strategy found that, since 2013, the owner occupancy rate in the neighborhood declined from 50% to 42% and the owner occupancy rate among single-family homes in the area fell from 94% to 84%. Between 2013 and 2018, the area lost 170 homeowners that resided in single-family homes, according to the study.
The study recommended strategies to help stabilize the neighborhood, including greater communication between Le Moyne and the people who live in the area, and the installation of new curbing, sidewalks, bump outs, lighting and other infrastructure to better define the campus edge and make it feel more welcoming.
Following those recommendations, Le Moyne recently installed new sidewalks at the entrance to its campus on Salt Springs Road, and the city is in the process of installing new sidewalks along the road.
“Le Moyne is an anchor institution and they very much want to play a role in that community,†said Kerney.
The study also recommended Le Moyne invest more in its off-campus properties and explore development of a “theme house†program for off-campus housing that could help establish the college’s brand around the campus perimeter.
A college “theme house†is where students with mutual interests -- say, players on one of its sports teams, or students studying a particular foreign language or those who are interested in the environment -- live together.
Grasso said the college will consider establishing such a program but for the moment is honoring existing leases of the homes.
The homes sold for as low as $133,000 and as high as $449,000. With an average property tax bill of about $5,000, the city and Onondaga County will lose around $100,000 in tax revenues if the private liberal arts college requests and is granted tax exempt status for them as extensions of campus housing.
In New York, educational institutions are exempt from taxes. So is housing owned by educational institutions and used to house students.
Such housing is usually in the form of campus dormitories, but it can also include off-campus homes owned by a college to house students or, in some cases, the college’s president.
The 18 other homes Le Moyne owns in the city and the town are exempt from taxes because they are leased to students.
Grasso said the college has not decided yet whether to apply for a tax exemption for the 20 recently purchased homes but will make a decision this fall. He said he has started discussions with the city on the issue.
“They’re eligible to be tax exempt,†he said. “That’s my opinion as the finance person here at Le Moyne. You know, the question with the city, though, is the city needs to be supported and so does the college in terms of revenues. We’ve just begun those discussions with the city.â€
City Assessor Matthew Oja said he expects the college to file a request for a tax exemption on the homes and that he will consider the request when he receives it. College-owned properties qualify as tax-exempt as long as the college can show their use advances their educational mission, he said."
I'm kind of surprised that they haven't considered building near/on Erie Boulevard like this open lot near campus that would infill a gap on that street:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0552...8192?entry=ttu You could even have a shuttle to and from campus as well.
Or look into this housing that I've recently seen is for sale and also near campus:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0538...8192?entry=ttu
This is another nearby space for sale near campus and on Erie Boulevard East:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0550...8192?entry=ttu (would likely have to get rezoned)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
