Victory Sports Medicine purchases Harriet Tubman facility for expansion

SENNETT — The Cayuga Economic Development Agency (CEDA) recently announced that a Skaneateles sports-medicine practice submitted the winning bid to buy the state-owned, former Harriet Tubman Residential Center in the town of Sennett.

Victory Sports Medicine, through its agent, CNY Realty Development Co. LLC, submitted the winning bid of $900,000 at the public auction held Sept. 18, according to the New York State Office of General Services (OGS).

CEDA is a local development corporation established to implement an economic- development strategy for all of Cayuga County, the agency said on its website.

CEDA specifically recruited Victory Sports Medicine in late July as a “potential fit” for its sports medicine and orthopedic practice, the agency said in a news release.

The former Harriet Tubman Residential Center has been vacant for more than two years after the state elected to close the facility in 2011 to save money, Andrew Fish, interim director of CEDA, said in the news release.

When CEDA heard the state was preparing to sell this property, it contacted Victory Sport Medicine, Fish said in the release.

“We thought it was a perfect fit because of their already strong dedication and commitment to communities throughout Cayuga County. Many of their current employees reside in Cayuga County. The potential positive impact this will have on our economy and the amount of quality new jobs that will be created as a result of their relocation to the Tubman Residential Center will benefit everyone,” said Fish.

With the addition of new services in the past five years, Victory Sports Medicine has “far outgrown” its existing facility to the point of using mobile-office trailers for its administrative functions, according to CEDA.

Victory Sports Medicine is proposing a more than $4 million project to renovate and expand the existing buildings on the Pine Ridge Road property.

Practice owner Dr. Marc Pietropaoli would like to relocate and add up to 75 new jobs with the expansion of treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention services, CEDA said.

In recent years, Victory Sports Medicine has been working on an integrated health care, sports, and wellness campus on a 100-acre location in Skaneateles.

The practice is “still very much committed” to that vision, whether it moves forward with the project in Skaneateles or Sennett, Pietropaoli said.

“However, in the meantime, we have a pressing need to expand our practice and this site provided us with that opportunity,” he added.

The Harriet Tubman Residential Center, built in 1993, is a former New York State Office of Children and Family Services operated juvenile-justice facility for young women. The center is situated on nearly 110 acres of land, improved with nearly 23,900 square feet of building improvements, according to the state OGS. The property includes an 11,800-square-foot facility with offices, classrooms, kitchen/dining rooms, recreational space, a 6,600-square-foot gymnasium and two maintenance garages, the OGS said.

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