National Grid awards grant to Merchants Commons

SYRACUSE  —  National Grid (NYSE: NGG) will send a $300,000 grant to the Merchants Commons project under way in downtown Syracuse.

The electricity and gas company’s grant is part of its Economic Development program. It is for brownfield redevelopment and is set to fund environmental remediation and asbestos removal at Merchants Commons.

Merchants Commons is made up of the Merchants Bank Building and Snow Building between South Warren Street and Bank Alley. Syracuse developer Washington St. Partners, Inc. is turning the buildings into 34,500 square feet of commercial space and 66 residential apartments.

The project landed a high-profile tenant in January when Syracuse Media Group announced it would relocate 150 of its employees there. Syracuse Media Group produces The Post-Standard newspaper and Syracuse.com website. It will move employees into 28,000 square feet at Merchants Commons after the project is complete. Construction will likely wrap up later this year.

“Revitalization of a downtown business core is key to any community’s success,” National Grid New York President Ken Daly said in a news release. “This project is exactly the type of endeavor we are looking to support — a project that repurposes an existing facility in an urban setting and provides results for the entire community.”

The $300,000 grant is the 12th brownfield redevelopment allotment National Grid approved in the last year. Its grants total nearly $3 million in upstate New York.

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com