SYRACUSE — A partner in the Salina 1st project the effort is now working on an updated schedule prompted by all the recent interest-rate increases.

The Salina 1st project site is located south of downtown Syracuse at 1081 S. Salina St., across from the JMA Wireless campus. Salina 1st describes itself as Syracuse’s first minority and woman-led commercial development.

In an Aug. 29 phone interview, Gail Montplaisir tells CNYBJ she updated the schedule a day earlier on Aug. 28. Project completion is still targeted for late 2024. 

“With the interest rate [hikes] that started in 2022 and just kind of kept going up … I think they were a real challenge for us as well as most other developers,” says Montplaisir.

Montplaisir is president of the Washington, D.C.–based Taurus Development Group and a partner in the project. 

Even a half a point increase in rates creates another “$200,000 gap,” meaning the partners have been working with supporters in raising more funding, bringing more sources and more capital in, and “getting all of our loans lined up,” she says. 

“We’re in a really good place now, and we’re very very excited about it,” Montplaisir adds.

As she explains it, site work was scheduled to continue around the middle of September with some foundation drilling work set for October. Additional footings and foundations work is set for November and December. 

“We anticipate actually starting to do the vertical construction probably around Jan. 15 or so, maybe the beginning of February,” she notes. 

Besides Montplaisir, Emanuel Henderson of JHP Industrial Supply Co., and Eli Smith of E. Smith Contractors are spearheading the Salina 1st project. 

The partners describe Salina 1st as a “catalytic,” mixed-use, community-development project. The 52,000-square-foot facility will include residential, retail, light industrial, and incubator/shared-office space, per a project news release.

JF Real Estate partnership

Salina 1st on June 20 said JF Real Estate of Syracuse would serve as its commercial broker to help with leasing the property’s commercial real estate. 

Salina 1st signed a one-year agreement with JF Real Estate to spread the word about the project both within the community and to potential tenants as the project gets closer to vertical construction, Montplaisir tells CNYBJ.

JF Real Estate is communicating with Black real-estate agents throughout the community who’ve been very supportive of the project and attended a lot of real-estate networking receptions. 

“If people don’t really know that the project is there, it makes it a little bit difficult, obviously, to find good, long-term tenants. They’re working within the community as well as all of their own sources to bring in new people,” says Montplaisir. 

JF Real Estate is a real-estate brokerage company that provides services such as brokerage, development, tenant and owner representation, site selection, space planning, architecture, design, construction, financing, and building management. The company currently exclusively represents about 3 million square feet of commercial space and over 175 apartments, all in the greater Syracuse area.

“We look forward to working with the Salina 1st team,” Matt Funiciello and Tom Schneider, representatives with JF Real Estate, said in a news release. “We anticipate transformative, inclusive growth in the city’s Southside, and we are embracing the opportunity to find commercial tenants to finalize the development of Salina 1st.” 

Commercial tenants that have committed to occupying the property so far include JHP Industrial Supply Company, Inc., Ebonomy, SGTR, and E. Smith Contractors. 

SYRACUSE — With housing a top concern in Syracuse now and looking ahead to when Micron arrives, NBT Bank is working with organizations to do its part to alleviate the housing strain.

The latest such project, in partnership with Housing Visions Unlimited, Inc., is the Creekside Landing project, which will bring about 200 new homes to south and southwest Syracuse.

For NBT, the banking subsidiary of NBT Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NBTB), its commitment to the communities it serves goes well beyond just having a branch in town, says David Kavney, senior VP and regional president for the Mohawk Valley and Central New York for NBT.

“We remain very focused on the communities where we exist,” he says, and the ability to help finance beneficial projects is important. “This project just makes sense.”

Creekside Landing, using existing vacant lots and abandoned properties from the Greater Syracuse Land Bank, will create 32 three-bedroom and four-bedroom duplexes and 20 apartments in a rehabilitated commercial building at 414-416 W. Onondaga St.

The entire project, slated at $31 million, will include multiple sites and is on point with Housing Visions’ mission to promote neighborhood revitalization, Housing Visions President/CEO Ben Lockwood says.

“We need housing across the board in Syracuse,” he says. Even more importantly, the city needs affordable housing. Creekside Landing rents will range from $520 to $1,400 a month, according to Lockwood.

The project will also include 5,000 square feet of consumer space that Jubilee Homes, a nonprofit community and workforce-development organization, will use as a workforce-development and construction-trade training center.

While NBT is the primary bank financing the project, there are numerous funding sources including the city, private investors, and state funding. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in May the project is one of 27 around the state that will share in $875 million.

All those funding sources, which also includes tax credits and grants, have to work together, says Richard Driscoll, NBT senior commercial-banking relationship manager. “You really have to understand how it all fits together,” he says.

Fortunately, NBT has experience after working on other projects with Housing Visions include a scattered-site project on East Genesee Street and the $16.6 million Butternut Crossing project, completed in 2020, that brought 53 housing units around St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Such projects are important to NBT, Kavney says, as it works to strengthen the communities it serves. The bank also recently financed a new position with OnPoint for College to help drive interest in careers in the semiconductor industry.

As the area prepares for the arrival of Micron, it’s an exciting time, Kavney adds. “What we’ve got in front of us is surely transformational.”

For his part, Lockwood says, “Our goal is really to be the catalyst.” His hope is that this latest housing project will provide the spark in that area that spurs more community development and investment.

Housing Visions, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit is a neighborhood-preservation company and a community-housing-development organization. It operates more than 1,600 housing units and developments in 16 communities around the northeast.

Lockwood says Housing Visions expects to close on the property for Creekside Landing sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving, with construction to start soon after with an 18-month timeline.

“And then we go to work on the next one with NBT,” he adds.