SYRACUSE — The Allyn Family Foundation hopes to begin renovation work inside the Chimes building at 500 S. Salina St. in Syracuse during the first quarter of 2024 and complete the project in about 15 months. That’s according to Meg O’Connell, executive director of the Allyn Family Foundation, who spoke with CNYBJ in an Aug. […]
SYRACUSE — The Allyn Family Foundation hopes to begin renovation work inside the Chimes building at 500 S. Salina St. in Syracuse during the first quarter of 2024 and complete the project in about 15 months.
That’s according to Meg O’Connell, executive director of the Allyn Family Foundation, who spoke with CNYBJ in an Aug. 7 telephone interview.
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 acquisition closed on July 14.
Plans call for renovating the Chimes building into 150 mixed-income units with additional retail and office space on the first and second floors.
“Our work with the Salt City Market’s 26 mixed-income apartments showed us that there is a major need for quality, affordable housing in Downtown Syracuse,” the Allyn Family Foundation said in a July 19 Facebook post.
The 152,000-square-foot structure has 12 floors. O’Connell also notes that the building does have a 13th floor on the top, which basically functions as an office and nothing more.
The Chimes building is listed on the National Registry of Historic Buildings. The previous owner had secured some historical tax credits and started work on completing two phases of renovation work. Even though the owner was awarded the credits, they were never used, according to O’Connell.
“The time has lapsed now. We’re new owners, so we have to go through this whole process [to secure the credits again],” says O’Connell. “We have already put out an RFP [request for proposals] for architectural services and we hope to have an architect on board by mid-September.”
The Allyn Family Foundation will also issue an RFP for a general contractor later this fall, she adds.
O’Connell went on to say that in the time that the Salt City Market has had operations, the foundation has looked at the Chimes building with “increased frustration” that the previous owner, 500 Salina Enterprises, LLC, wasn’t finishing the planned renovation work.
Chimes building interest
O’Connell thinks buying the Chimes building made “logical sense.”
The Allyn Family Foundation has invested “a lot” into the southern end of downtown, including the creation of the Salt City Market.
She also noted additional activity in the area, including the rebirth of the Hotel Syracuse as the Marriott Syracuse Downtown, the renovation work at the Symphony Towers building next to the Marriott and across from the Salt City Market, the Centro bus hub, and the upcoming STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) school.
In her mind, it’s time to add the Chimes building to that list.
“The Chimes building was just this iconic, beautiful, historic building that really was the anchor for downtown, the southern end,” O’Connell says.