Mayor Walsh Announces Recipients of ARPA Distressed Property Fund

Published on September 08, 2023

Syracuse, N.Y. – Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh announced the recipients of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Distressed Property Fund, a program created by the Department of Neighborhood and Business Development (NBD) and authorized by the Syracuse Common Council. The application-based grant program is designed to spur redevelopment and improvement of vacant, distressed commercial, mixed-use and historic properties in the City of Syracuse.

A total of $1 million in ARPA funding is being allocated to eight different properties and structures that are vacant and in need of rehabilitation:

• Hip Hop Center for Youth Entrepreneurship, 215 Tully Street, $250,000. The center is being developed by the Good Life Foundation and will serve as a space that inspires the city’s youth through food, art and music.  
• Gustav Stickley House, 438 Columbus Avenue, $250,000. The historic museum and former home of Gustav Stickley, known as the ‘father of the American arts & crafts movement’ is in its second phase of restoration, and will include spaces for educational programming, exhibits, events and rooms for overnight guests.
• Moyer Carriage Lofts, 1714 North Salina Street and 201 Wolf Street, $125,000. The former Moyer Carriage and Car Factory is being redeveloped into an integrated mixed-use building with quality affordable housing and ground floor commercial space.
• City Center, 400 South Salina Street, $125,000. Currently under renovation, the former Sibley’s department store now houses the Redhouse Arts Center and features spacious offices and ground level retail spaces with an attached parking garage.
• Ra-Menes Food and Gas, 900 South Avenue, $100,000. The development includes the remediation and complete renovation of a vacant former service station to support a new full-service fuel station on the South Avenue business corridor.
• The Castle, 2110 South Salina Street, $50,000. This renovation and restoration of the former South Presbyterian Church into a multi-use facility will host a variety of community centered activities around professional development, awareness building and social engagement to help rejuvenate the Southside neighborhood.
• Syracuse Bread Factory, 200 Maple Street, $50,000. One of only four Ward Wellington designed commercial buildings still in existence, the project is a complete remediation, redevelopment and activation of a historically significant building on Syracuse’s Near Eastside.
• 757 West Onondaga Street, $50,000. The building will be transformed into a mixed-use property with apartments and commercial retail uses on the ground floor.

The Distressed Property Fund promotes economic recovery and leverages new investment within commercial, mixed-use and historic properties, with particular emphasis placed on projects with immediate timelines and in the final predevelopment financing phases.

In total, these eight projects will use the $1 million in City funds to leverage more than $140 million in new investment and result in more than 160 units of new housing in Syracuse, including affordable, workforce and market rate units.

“The recipients of the program represent projects across the city that have faced challenges since the beginning of COVID-19,” said Mayor Walsh. “Now that the funds are allocated, we are one step closer to returning these properties to productive use and generating new investment within Syracuse neighborhoods.”

The ARPA funds are intended to serve as gap financing for the redevelopment projects and must be used toward building stabilization, structural repairs and interior and exterior renovations.

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