NBT helps finance growth of housing in Syracuse

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.