SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Anyone traveling in downtown Syracuse over the past several months likely saw the exterior renovation work on the building now known as City Center. It’s a structure spanning a city block between two busy downtown intersections that now has new tenants and a new look after a major renovation project that started […]
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SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Anyone traveling in downtown Syracuse over the past several months likely saw the exterior renovation work on the building now known as City Center.
It’s a structure spanning a city block between two busy downtown intersections that now has new tenants and a new look after a major renovation project that started earlier in the decade.
The entity 400 S. Salina Street LLC on Oct. 10 formally reopened City Center at 400 S. Salina St. in Syracuse, the structure that was previously home to the Sibley’s department store beginning in 1968 and was later converted into an office building in the early 1990s, per a news release about the project.
The building is bordered by South Salina, West Jefferson, and South Clinton Streets in the downtown area.
City Center is now home to the Hayner Hoyt Corporation, Huntington Ingalls Mission Technologies, CXtec and TERACAI, the Redhouse Arts Center, and Tompkins Community Bank.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that there’s still space left in the building,” Jeremy Thurston, president of the Hayner Hoyt Corporation, said to conclude his remarks during the late-morning formal-opening ceremony in the building’s courtyard area.
“This redevelopment would not have been possible with the vision of the Redhouse Arts Center,” Thurston said to open his remarks. “[Hayner Hoyt CEO Gary Thurston] and I joined them as partners later on. I want to thank them very much for allowing us to partner in the redevelopment, both as contractor and as a partner in the redevelopment.”
The project included a more than $40 million investment to complete the renovation of the 230,000-square-foot building with an attached 700-car parking garage.
Thurston also noted the cooperation of the City of Syracuse, specifically its building, engineering, and public works departments, and the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency.
Empire State Development provided financial support in the form of $4.1 million in grants for the project.
“This is more than a capital project. It was an investment to support the continued revitalization of the city’s urban core,” Hope Knight, president, CEO, and commissioner of Empire State Development, said in her remarks during the ceremony. “Projects like this represent how we’re investing in communities across the state. With strategic public-private partnerships like this one, we’re helping to bring new life into downtowns.”
Thurston also acknowledged the involvement of Tompkins Community Bank, Pathfinder Bank, and Adirondack Bank as financial lenders for the project.
He also thanked CenterState CEO and the Downtown Committee of Syracuse, Inc. for their marketing support and tenant referrals for the project as well.
Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh called it a “truly transformational project.”
“For me, in order to fully maximize this opportunity and this moment, we need to make sure that our core, our center, the city center is as strong as possible,” Walsh said at the ceremony. “And if we can continue to build out from the center, we are going to achieve great things in this region. And this project is a perfect example of where we are doubling down in the heart of our city, in the heart of our region in a way that is going to benefit the entire region.”
Besides Thurston, Knight, and Walsh, other speakers included Onondaga County Deputy County Executive Brian Donnelly; Andy Green, executive VP of Huntington Ingalls and president of Huntington Ingalls Mission Technologies; Peter Belyea, CEO of CXtec and TERACAI; Franklin Fry, executive director of the Redhouse Arts Center; and Merike Treier, executive director of the Downtown Committee of Syracuse, Inc.
Employees from interior tenants observed the ceremony on a balcony above the courtyard.
Hayner Hoyt announced the beginning of work on the redevelopment project in a ceremony at the Redhouse Arts Center on Jan. 19, 2022.
