Redhouse has a new marquee, unveiled after honoring board member Hider

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SYRACUSE — It was a summer evening in mid-July when the Redhouse Arts Center formally unveiled its new marquee. The marquee’s lighting marked the first time in nearly 60 years that downtown Syracuse had two lit marquees on its main downtown strip, and the first brand new marquee on South Salina Street in more than […]

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SYRACUSE — It was a summer evening in mid-July when the Redhouse Arts Center formally unveiled its new marquee.

The marquee’s lighting marked the first time in nearly 60 years that downtown Syracuse had two lit marquees on its main downtown strip, and the first brand new marquee on South Salina Street in more than a century, according to the Redhouse.

“The whole point of this marquee is to tell people where we are,” Franklin Fry, executive director of the Redhouse Arts Center, said in his remarks at the July 15 event.

The Redhouse paid for the $125,000 marquee using funding sources that included a New York Main Street grant through the New York State Department of Homes and Community Renewal. The Central New York Community Foundation matched the state’s contribution, according to Fry.

Prior to the marquee lighting, the “Light the Town Red Soiree” event on July 15 included the presentation of the inaugural Redhouse Arts Center Lifetime Achievement Award presentation to long-time board member Bill Hider.

The Redhouse Arts Center is a nonprofit cultural and performing-arts organization that has presented dozens of performances at City Center at 400 S. Salina St. since 2018.

“I’m overwhelmed. So exciting seeing all of you here supporting the Red House and come out to see me win this award. It’s very touching. It’s very touching to see all the friends and family that came … I appreciate that,” Hider said in addressing the gathering inside the Redhouse Arts Center.

The organization says it was Hider who had the vision and leadership to move the Redhouse from a 90-seat walk-up theatre at 201 S. West Street to the 43,000-square-foot, multi-theatre performing-arts center that it is today.

The Redhouse says it became the anchor and original tenant in 2018 of a building complex that is now called City Center. The organization credits Hider’s vision that “helped give downtown Syracuse a fresh and vibrant place” that now draws more than 25,000 visitors annually.

The July 15 red-carpet fundraiser included cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, live music by Isaac Betters, vocalist Michael Ranalli, pianist Jimmy Cox, and The Cadleys.

“As Redhouse lights the first brand new Salina Street marquee in a century, we hope it serves as a beacon for our community. It will welcome and empower our local artists to bring forward their visions of our community for us all to see,” Fry said in the Redhouse Arts Center announcement.

To acknowledge the new marquee, several Syracuse city landmarks lit their buildings red in “solidarity with and celebration of” the Redhouse Arts Center. They included City Hall, City Center, Crouse Health, Loretto, National Grid, Barclay Damon, St Joseph’s Health, the gate and Exposition Center at the New York State Fairgrounds in the town of Geddes, and the Oncenter – ASM Global Syracuse.

And just up the street from the Redhouse, the Landmark Theatre, which the Redhouse describes as its “neighbor and elder Salina Street sibling,” also had its marquee lit in red.

Inner Harbor aquarium should be ready by mid-2026

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon says the Inner Harbor aquarium is set for completion in mid-2026. “This facility will be open in less than a year. The exterior of the facility will be likely completed at the end of this year and then the interior [work] will begin,” McMahon said in remarks at

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SYRACUSE — Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon says the Inner Harbor aquarium is set for completion in mid-2026.

“This facility will be open in less than a year. The exterior of the facility will be likely completed at the end of this year and then the interior [work] will begin,” McMahon said in remarks at an event on Aug. 13.

A spokesman for McMahon says C&S Engineers is the designer of record. The firm’s primary consultants are St. Louis, Missouri–based PGAV Destinations, which focused on aquarium concepts, exhibits, graphics, patron experience; Seattle, Washington–based MLA Engineering, which focused on aquatic concrete; Penfield, N.Y. –based Popli Design Group, which has an office in Syracuse and focused on the mechanical engineering component; TJP Engineering of Bend, Oregon, which focused on life-support systems; CME Associates, Inc. of DeWitt, which provided insight on the project’s geotechnical component.

“The aquarium, outside of telling [about] the cleanup [of] and the story of Onondaga Lake; the fresh-water story of New York State; and then certainly the saltwater exhibits that will really help attract people from all over New York and all over the Northeast and arguably the country, offers a unique opportunity for the arts and cultural industry,” McMahon said.

He was speaking at an event at Studio Central Post at 201 S. West St. in Syracuse announcing incentives for the future aquarium as a location for filmmakers.

It’s a $100 million project that still needs $6 million in fundraising, and McMahon told reporters he’s “extremely confident” that raising the funding “won’t be an issue.”

“We have commitments that are starting to come in, and we have naming-rights deals that are in the end stages of negotiations. And we have other economic partnerships that we’ll be announcing,” McMahon said. “We have little concern about filling the remainder of the $6 million … We’ll raise more than the $6 million and we’ll likely put some of that away to implement some of our educational programming.”

Film incentive

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon (in red shirt) on Aug. 13 addressed reporters at Studio Central Post at 201 S. West St. in Syracuse, as he announced filming incentives for the upcoming Inner Harbor aquarium.
ERIC REINHARDT / CNYBJ

Any kind of film work that is conducted at the upcoming Inner Harbor aquarium will qualify for the Onondaga County local PRIMED tax credit.

PRIMED is short for the Onondaga County Production Rebate Incentives for Movies and Entertainment Development, per the website of CNY Arts. PRIMED is an incentive-based rebate program designed to support television, commercial advertising campaigns, and feature-film productions in Onondaga County.

PRIMED offers a 25-30 percent rebate, up to $300,000, on all qualified local expenditures in Onondaga County, CNY Arts said.

“Since 2021, PRIMED has generated over 100,000 labor hours for local crew,” Alexander Korman, executive director of CNY Arts, said in his remarks at the Aug. 13 event. “PRIMED has also generated over $8 million in direct economic impact right here in Onondaga County and adjacent sectors like hospitality, lodging, transportation.”

McMahon said Onondaga County also plans to work with Visit Syracuse and Eric Vinal, VP of film, TV & entertainment at Visit Syracuse, to get the upcoming aquarium, once complete, registered for the New York State film tax credits.

“We will work with our team at ZoOceanarium, who will be running the facility, in offering discounted rates to use the facility for production of film,” McMahon said.

Film production could be handled by companies such as American High, a local film-production studio, or even the nonprofit sector, such as WCNY, Syracuse University, and Le Moyne College.

The county executive made the Aug. 13 announcement at Studio Central Post at 201 S. West St. in Syracuse, noting that the county is “really excited about this.”

He went on to say that the aquarium will be open in less than a year. The facility’s exterior will be likely completed at the end of this year and then crews will begin the interior work.

“But we have amazing partners here that will be using this much more than people just coming in and seeing the exotic marine life that are there,” McMahon said.

Besides McMahon and Vinal, those attending the announcement included Danny Liedka, president and CEO of Visit Syracuse; Jeremy Garelick, founder and CEO of American High; Monte Young, co-founder and managing partner of Studio Central Post; Franklin Fry, executive director of Red House Arts Center; Alex Corman, executive director of CNY Arts; and Onondaga County Legislator Shawn Fiato.

Project history

The Onondaga County Legislature narrowly approved the project in a 9-8 vote during its meeting of Aug. 2, 2022. Like the legislators who voted against it, some segments of the community believed county officials could’ve spent that money on other matters, such as poverty in the Syracuse area.

But in the end the project was approved, following 10 months of debate about it after McMahon first announced the aquarium initiative in early October 2021.

The aquarium project is an expansion of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, McMahon told local reporters following the county legislature’s vote. The project idea came from the Friends of the Zoo, he said. McMahon credited zoo officials, such as former executive director Ted Fox and his team, for their work in giving county officials “the confidence to undertake this [project].”

The county executive called the aquarium project a “tourism year-round asset … that we can sell.”

The aquarium project will also provide “unique opportunities” for the county to partner with its higher-education institutions and research, McMahon contends.

“It will provide great opportunities to tell one of the greatest stories we’ve had in our community with the cleanup of Onondaga Lake and its tributaries and work in the history of this lake and what it’s meant to our community and how for the first time in a generation what is happening around it as it becomes the epicenter for recreational and leisure activity once again,” he said.

Festivals give downtown revitalization a boost

Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — As the revitalization and growth of downtown Syracuse continues, festivals are providing a lift because they attract new visitors to downtown and showcase it, while increasing the urban-lifestyle amenities for those who call downtown home. Downtown festivals attract hundreds of thousands of attendees annually to Syracuse’s central business area, which provides a number

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Downtown festivals attract hundreds of thousands of attendees annually to Syracuse’s central business area, which provides a number of follow-on business and economic benefits.

The Syracuse Arts & Crafts Festival, held from July 25-27 in the Columbus Circle area of downtown, drew a crowd of 30,000 people this year, says Merike Treier, executive director of the Downtown Committee of Syracuse, Inc., which puts on that festival annually. Treier spoke with CNYBJ in an Aug. 25 phone interview and she credited the Downtown Committee’s pedestrian counting software for generating the crowd figure.

Throughout the weekend, attendees were able to shop and browse many contemporary arts and crafts, including ceramics, sculptures, photography, painting, woodwork, and jewelry.

Downtown Syracuse hosts about a 15 festivals each year, according to Treier. The biggest one is Taste of Syracuse, which was held this year from June 6-7 and is organized by the events arm of Galaxy Media. Taste of Syracuse — described by Galaxy as Central New York’s biggest food and music festival — attracted an estimated 200,000 people over two days.

Other key festivals drawing big crowds to downtown include the Polish Festival, held in Clinton Square this year from June 20-22; the Syracuse Irish Festival, hosted at Clinton Square Sept. 5-6; and Festa Italiana, held in front of Syracuse City Hall from Sept. 12-14.

The impact of festivals

These festivals play a critical role in downtown’s growth and renewal, says Treier.

“Festivals add to the quality of life that we can offer here in Syracuse and downtown Syracuse. They offer an opportunity to showcase the different assets that we have here – whether that’s arts and culture or people and cultures. The festivals provide a platform for celebration to take place,” she says.

Treier explains, “When [festivals] are taking place in downtown Syracuse, it’s a tremendous opportunity to bring people” into downtown’s central business district. “It helps them kind of explore and understand what there is to offer, while also providing that platform to celebrate our different cultures and art forms.”

And that translates into an economic boost.

“That is the hope, with the festivals and events bringing people into the downtown area, not only for that event but also to provide them with a reason or excuse to come into the downtown district,” Treier notes. “From there, the opportunity to discover a new restaurant they have not seen before… or learning about a new business, or museum that they have not known about before.”

Besides the well-known, established festivals, newer events are also making an impact. The 315 Thursdays Music Series attracted music fans to Hanover Square every Thursday in August and to the Westcott neighborhood of Syracuse every Thursday night in September. The series has become popular and developed quite a following, Treier says.

BabelFest is another emerging event. Put on by Redhouse Arts Center from Sept. 25-28, it was a free weekend of 11 “groundbreaking new plays that feature emerging voices and underrepresented perspectives,” according to the Redhouse.

“The more festivals that we have coming through our community is helping to highlight a lot of our different amenities that exist here and helping to establish Syracuse as a center for arts and culture in our region,” says Treier, who is also president of the Downtown Syracuse Foundation, Inc.

Helping in the effort to foster new and emerging festivals is the Syracuse Cultural Festivals Fund, which was established by the City of Syracuse government budget and is administered by the Downtown Syracuse Foundation on behalf of the city.

In the latest round, $135,000 in grants was available for festivals planned to be held between October 2025 and September 2026 and eligible for consideration. Applications for grant amounts between $3,000 and $10,000 per festival were considered and grant dollars are intended to support 501 (c)(3) and 501 (c)(4) nonprofit community groups in delivering celebratory events that focus on a particular theme. The events must be free for the public to attend (with no ticket purchase necessary), take place in public spaces, and offer entertainment and/or activities for attendees.

“Putting together and finding funding for festivals is a challenge. So to be able to help support nonprofits in delivering these events to the community was really important,” says Treier.

Success stories emerging from the Syracuse Cultural Festivals Fund include BabelFest. Another success example is the Syracuse Art Trail, a collaborative project between CNY Arts and local arts and culture organizations, held July 18-27 this year.

For the 2024 edition of the Syracuse Cultural Festivals Fund application process, 27 festivals across the city of Syracuse were allocated funding, says Treier. The 2025 grant process was in progress as this publication went to press.

Downtown Committee report chronicles project activity

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — More than $290 million of development activity has been announced or is underway in downtown Syracuse. This past year, 24 new businesses opened, bringing new cuisine, new experiences, and new energy to key downtown corridors between 2024 and 2025. In total, downtown Syracuse is home to 260 storefront businesses. Those figures were part

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SYRACUSE — More than $290 million of development activity has been announced or is underway in downtown Syracuse.

This past year, 24 new businesses opened, bringing new cuisine, new experiences, and new energy to key downtown corridors between 2024 and 2025. In total, downtown Syracuse is home to 260 storefront businesses.

Those figures were part of the State of Downtown report that Merike Treier, executive director of the Downtown Committee of Syracuse Inc., delivered during the organization’s annual meeting held June 18 in the ballroom of the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center at Oncenter.

The organization provided CNYBJ with a copy of Treier’s remarks from the meeting.

Projects listed

Examples of ongoing projects include a $2.6 million upgrade at the Upstate Medical Arena at The Oncenter War Memorial that seeks to improve seating and accessibility.

In addition, CenterState CEO’s $32 million INSPYRE Innovation Hub was scheduled for a Sept. 18 formal opening, described as New York’s largest entrepreneurial incubator.

West Onondaga Street will have projects targeting pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure as well as new gateway treatments, thanks to a $3 million project of the City of Syracuse and funding from New York’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI).

The projects also include new housing opportunities. The property at 250 Harrison St. is getting 30 new apartments through a $13 million redevelopment with support from both the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County.

The Allyn Family Foundation’s $46 million redevelopment of the Chimes Building into 152 mixed-income apartments and new commercial space is ongoing.

And, at downtown’s southern gateway, the new Syracuse STEAM High School remains under construction, even as it has opened to welcome 250 new students to the area (STEAM is short for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics).

Elsewhere, Sun Development & Management Corporation has plans to build a new $87 million, 245-room hotel at the site of Lemp Park and the Warren Street parking garage.

One block south, a $1.5 million grant was secured to support the redevelopment of the Jefferson Building into 27 apartments and retail space. And work continues at the Mizpah Towers to convert the historic structure into a mix of spacious apartments, a performance venue, a café, and office suites.

On that same block of Montgomery Street, the Onondaga Historical Association (OHA) is underway with a $5 million project to expand its research center, add capacity to host events, and improve the care of its collections.

In addition, the City of Syracuse in partnership with the Syracuse Firefighters Memorial Fund will invest $400,000 to improve Fayette Firefighters Memorial Park with new landscaping and commemorative bricks around the belltower.

Fronting the park, Douglas Development will invest $25 million into 420-430 East Genesee St., redeveloping two vacant buildings into 57 apartments.

Work also continues at Hanover Square Park where the City of Syracuse is using a $1 million investment for a more resilient fountain façade, improved lighting, and more seating.

Across Warren Street, Hanover Development will convert the former City Hall Commons Building into a mix of 39 market-rate and affordable apartments. The renovations will introduce commercial space in the glass atrium.

On Clinton Square, VIP Structures plans to spend $17.6 million to add 72 apartments to The Post. This work is scheduled to finish next spring.

In Armory Square, plans are in place for the demolition of the Clinton Street Parking Garage and a $23 million investment to build the Clinton at Armory Square, a new construction project that will add 88 apartments and 3,000 square feet of retail space.

Investments continue into downtown’s cultural anchors.

The Landmark Theatre completed a $1.5 million restoration of its 97-year-old auditorium. When patrons returned in September, they were greeted with a restored stagehouse to enjoy this season’s lineup.

In addition, the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology (The MOST) received a $2.8 million grant to renovate space in its eastern wing for new STEAM educational space.

Syracuse Nationals 2026 Thursday to Saturday

Syracuse Nationals car show shifting to a Thursday-to-Saturday event in 2026

Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Technology

GEDDES, N.Y. — The NAPA Auto Parts Syracuse Nationals, the largest car show in the Northeast, is shifting to a Thursday-to-Saturday schedule in 2026, running

Northern New York credit union votes to merge with AmeriCU Credit Union

Banks & Credit Unions, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Law, Accounting & Taxes, Mohawk Valley, Nonprofits, North Country, Regional News, Technology

ROME, N.Y. — The members of Mountain Valley Federal Credit Union in the northeastern part of New York have voted to merge their credit union

DiNapoli audit on Thruway cashless tolling

DiNapoli: State Thruway Authority has improved the accuracy of toll collections

Technology, Law, Accounting & Taxes, New York News, Subscriber Only

ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State Thruway Authority generally bills drivers accurately for tolls. That’s according to an audit that New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released Tuesday. The audit identified some exceptions and recommended better monitoring and corrective actions. “The Thruway Authority has come a long way since it first introduced cashless tolls,

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ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State Thruway Authority generally bills drivers accurately for tolls.

That’s according to an audit that New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released Tuesday. The audit identified some exceptions and recommended better monitoring and corrective actions.

“The Thruway Authority has come a long way since it first introduced cashless tolls, but some problems remain,” DiNapoli said in the announcement. “Even a smaller percentage of unreadable or inaccurate tolls can mean loss of revenue to the state or aggravation for New Yorkers facing incorrect bills. I appreciate the efforts the Authority has undertaken to fix the issues we identified.”

A few findings

In 2024, Thruway reported $1 billion in toll and related revenues, up from $804 million in 2021, DiNapoli’s office said. E-Z Pass accounts for 95 percent of all tolls collected in 2024. DiNapoli’s previous audit from May 2023 found the Thruway Authority needed to improve its collections process.

The latest audit found improvements but work that still needs to be done, DiNapoli’s office said. For example, auditors looked at collections over a three-week period and found 92,000 tolls couldn’t be charged because vehicles’ license plates were not readable. At one exit, interchange 25A near Schenectady, some 36,000 tolls were incorrectly charged and another 8,000 that should have been charged but were not, for an error rate of about 5 percent.

The audit also found Thruway needed to provide stronger oversight of the more than 12,000 non-revenue E-Z Pass tags that do not get charged, as well as the toll discounts it gives to certain drivers. In looking at a random sample of 75 non-revenue tags, the Thruway Authority was unable to provide supporting documentation for the eligibility of 46 (61 percent) tags, “making it unclear” whether eligible individuals were using them.

Thruway Authority response

DiNapoli’s office noted that the Thruway Authority generally agreed with the audit findings and said it has already taken steps to implement some of the recommendations.

The DiNapoli audit included a letter to the state comptroller’s office from Frank Hoare, executive director of the New York State Thruway Authority, reacting to the recommendations in the audit.

One such recommendation reads, “Periodically review transactions to ensure tolls were correctly charged, identify the cause of incorrect charges, take appropriate action to prevent it from recurring, and document those where no action is deemed necessary.”

In response, the Thruway Authority said, “The Authority agrees with OSC’s (Office of the State Comptroller) finding that tolls are accurately charged, with a limited number of exceptions. The Authority routinely conducts reviews of toll transactions to ensure the integrity of the tolling system but it agrees it should continuously improve the quality assurance process to further mitigate incorrect tolls being charged.”