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Syracuse Uses Tax Breaks to Help Redevelop Historic Building Syracuse Uses Tax Breaks to Help Redevelop Historic Building

By Dylan Johnson

Hakim Morris: It definitely changes the vibe of the town and stuff.

Dylan Johnson: Syracuse resident Hakim Morris lives next to the Salt City Market, which opened in January.
It used to be a parking lot that wasn’t used much.
SIDA used property tax breaks totaling over nine-hundred-thousand dollars over fifteen years to help developers build it.
Morris says there is already a noticeable difference to that part of the downtown environment.

Morris: Now when I’m off work, I’m off my shift I can go and have a nice meal with some friends, and actually experience a nice, you know, area.

Johnson And that’s exactly what the city wants to do here, where SIDA just recently ok’d over seven hundred thousand dollars in tax breaks for developers to renovate this one hundred plus year old building.

Eric Ennis: Drawing additional people into the neighborhood, making this building a destination.”)

Johnson: Director of Business Development for the City of Syracuse Eric Ennis says a neglected building sitting there helps nobody.
But the city can’t afford to redevelop so it gives tax breaks to those who can.
Instead of being demolished, it ends up making the city much more money in the long run. And the residents get an improved building that serves as an anchor for a developing neighborhood.

Ennis: They spur additional investment, renovation and really bring people into a neighborhood.

Johnson: It’s one of the four remaining commercial buildings made by famed local architect Ward Wellington Ward.
It was a bakery for over sixty years but has been vacant since the early 2000s.

Ennis: It’s a significant property and it’s one that has a lot of history in Syracuse so it’s very important that we value that history and we bring this building back to life.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – The City of Syracuse is using tax breaks to incentivize developers to revitalize neighborhoods it can’t afford to.

The Syracuse Industrial Development Agency, or SIDA, is the agency that gives them out. One such project right now is the redevelopment of a historic, 109-year-old building, the former home of the Syracuse Bread Company and later the Coopers Decoration Company.

Famed local architect Ward Wellington Ward built it and it’s one of only four remaining commercial buildings he designed.

“It’s a significant property and it’s one that has a lot of history in Syracuse, so it’s very important that we value that history and we bring this building back to life,” said Eric Ennis, Director of Business Development.

Three developers are getting $729,880 in tax breaks from the city to take on the $16 million project. They are cleaning it up and converting it into a mixed-use building that will feature 19 apartment units, commercial space on the first floor and a courtyard cut into the middle.

The apartments will be studio, one and two bedrooms. Some of the commercial space will go to food and arts, and a brewery is being considered.

“(The projects) spur additional investment, renovation and really bring people into a neighborhood,” Ennis said.

A past project that serves as an example of what SIDA does is the Salt City Market. SIDA gave the developers mortgage tax breaks that would total over $900,000 over 15 years.

Syracuse resident Hakim Morris lives nearby and said he can tell a significant difference in the area’s atmosphere.

“Now when I’m off work, I’m off my shift I can go and have a nice meal with some friends, and actually experience a nice, you know, area,” Morris said.

That’s exactly what Ennis said the city wants when it gives out these tax breaks.

“Drawing additional people into the neighborhood, making this building a destination,” Ennis said.

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