Sidearm Sports is currently located on the Syracuse University campus and employ 70 people full time and another 50 part time. With plans to grow in the next few years, they have decided to move their headquarters downtown. They join a growing list of other companies that have decided to call downtown Syracuse their home, such as TCG Player and Terakeet.
This decision to move downtown can help local businesses thrive. Darwin, a local sandwich shop downtown, relies on companies around them. When they opened in 2010, a bunch of companies moved to the area and they actually needed to move to a bigger location just a few years ago. Daryl McGrew, owner and operator of Darwin, says that all these businesses downtown helps them succeed and grow.
“We moved into the downtown area as law firms were moving into the area, architectural firms, large businesses, and it helps us on a day-to-day basis.
Darwin is only open Monday through Friday from 11am-3pm, which is what calls McGrew calls, “banker’s hours.”
“We’re here to serve the business professionals of the downtown community so we have that 20-hour window to get them in, feed them, make sure they are happy and make sure that they are coming back this same time next week,” McGrew said.
Sidearm Sports acknowledges that their move downtown, along with the many other companies that have made the decision, create a perfect storm of business for the community. It is also great for their employees to have all these local shops, restaurants, and bars to enjoy after work or on their lunch break. Jeff Rubin, CEO of Sidearm Sports, says that their move will be great for their company and the surrounding businesses.
“It’s a big deal, right, and Darwin’s is an incredible restaurant right downtown that our staff will be excited to go to,” Rubin said. “But there is also a bagel place that just opened, and there’s the Glazed and Confused donuts that just opened. It’s awesome.”
Rubin says that he is excited to move downtown to help recruit and keep talent not just from Central New York but from all over the country. He thinks that the move will not only help existing business, but also create opportunity for new places to open up downtown.
“You could argue that when we bring 70 employees downtown, that makes room for new restaurants to open up, because you’ve now got this extra disposable income that’s being spent,” Rubin said.
