Renovation work on Chimes Building apartments should be complete in Q1 of 2026

SYRACUSE — Crews from the Hayner Hoyt Corporation continue their work renovating the apartments in the upper floors of the Chimes Building. The Allyn Family Foundation anticipates all the apartment units will be in place during the first quarter of 2026, says Maarten Jacobs, director of community prosperity at the Allyn Family Foundation, who spoke with CNYBJ on Aug. 27. The 152,000-square-foot structure has 12 floors. The Chimes Building is listed on the National Registry of Historic Buildings. The project cost is about $48 million, a figure that includes the building-purchase price. Plans call for renovating the Chimes Building into 152 mixed-income units with additional retail and office space on the first and second floors. Jacobs says the Hayner Hoyt crews are renovating the apartments in the upper floors first and working their way down the building. They actually skipped the 12th floor because at the time renovation work started, the structure needed a new roof, which has since been addressed. “They start working floor by floor. At [floor] 11, we have cabinets in the apartments. All the sheet rock is up. Ceilings are done. All the electrical is in,” Jacobs tells CNYBJ. The renovation work on the 11th and 10th floors provides a “good picture” of what the apartments are going to look like, he adds. The apartment-renovation work on the lower floors is still to come. Jacobs also addressed the involvement of New York State Homes and Community Renewal. “We received some home funding … administered by the City but it’s a federal HUD program which will ensure affordability for 10 of the apartments. We’re certainly doing more than that, but it provides funding specifically for those 10,” he says. HUD is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The effort so far has also included replacing all the windows in the Chimes Building, he notes. Besides the Hayner Hoyt Corporation of Syracuse, in-ARCHITECTS of Syracuse handled the design work for the project. “It’s been a great team that’s problem solving together and keeping things on track and on schedule,” Jacobs adds. “We are very happy with the outcome thus far.” The Allyn Family Foundation isn’t currently accepting applications for the apartments, but a wait list is available at seedsyracuse.org. Those interested only need to submit an email address.

“We’ll have a model unit ready sometime in October, and after that, I think we’re going to start doing some preleasing most likely in November,” says Jacobs. The foundation, which is made up of members of the Allyn family, awarded a grant of $8.2 million to a nonprofit it set up called SEED Syracuse that handled the purchase. SEED is short for Social Equity Economic Development. The building purchase closed in July 2023. Jacobs also notes that the Allyn Family Foundation isn’t yet ready to announce the five new commercial tenants on the first floor, who will begin occupying space in the second quarter of 2026. “We’ve been able to execute a few leases and that we anticipate that the first floor of that building will soon be alive again when it hasn’t been for 30-plus years.” The foundation will also be partnering with Access CNY, committing up to 15 apartments available for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The 152,000-square-foot Chimes Building opened at the southwest corner of South Salina and West Onondaga streets in 1929, becoming one of Syracuse’s “most prominent” office buildings, per the website of the Allyn Family Foundation. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon architects, the same New York City firm that designed the Empire State Building two years later, per the website.