Demolition begins as Syracuse’s old public housing makes way for new East Adams neighborhood (video)

Excavators started clawing down the first public housing apartments in McKinney Manor Tuesday to make way for the new East Adams neighborhood – an ambitious 11-phase, $1 billion redevelopment near downtown Syracuse.

In the end, 672 units of public housing are scheduled to be torn down and replaced with nearly 1,400 new apartments for both current residents and tenants paying market-rate rents.

The 25 two-story townhomes at Angelou Terrace are the first to go. Named for the poet Maya Angelou, they were built in 1989 on 11.1 acres.

McKinney Manor has 50 more units on three cul-de-sacs next door to Pioneer Homes, the hundreds of brick apartments that line the elevated Interstate 81. Those are scheduled to be torn down in phases between 2026 and 2033.

Demolition started at sunrise Tuesday morning. Crews from Hueber Breuer Construction moved quickly. It took just minutes for an excavator with a claw attachment to tear through sidings and roofs and dip into the first floor of each unit, exposing bedroom walls, plumbing and insulation.

Tenants have moved to other Syracuse Housing Authority properties or taken vouchers to use toward housing anywhere. Two tenants used vouchers to buy homes. They all have a right to move into new apartments once they are built, expected in 2027.

No former tenants watched the demolition Tuesday.

The Syracuse Housing Authority and McCormack Baron Salazar, a Missouri developer, intentionally started construction without inviting a crowd. They hired a drone pilot to fly over the first building strike and invited Syracuse.com to watch.

Allyson Carpenter, MBS vice president of development, said they wanted to save the celebration for future construction and respect the tenants who left.

“We understand this is an important milestone,” Carpenter said. “But at the end of the day, these are people’s homes and it’s an emotional day for a lot of people.”

Tara Harris lives in Pioneer Homes, next door to McKinney Manor apartments. She said she remembers when they were built. The neighborhood was named for Langston McKinney, the city’s first Black judge.

The apartments sit on a grassy lot, where kids had space to play and adults could sit outside. All that vacant space is a reason developers chose to start the project on that block.

In place of 25 old apartments, developers plan to build 133 new units in a mix of buildings. The building at the corner of East Adams and State streets will be four stories tall, developers have said.

Harris watched with mixed feelings as the excavator smashed the buildings.

“The happy part for me is that the residents will all have a right to return - the ones that are willing to return - and that the residents are coming back to new and updated apartments with better living standards,” she said. “The sad part is not being able to see the kids in the neighborhood playing together. It’s going to be empty.”

The old apartments were simple structures with no central air and no washers and dryers. New apartments will have those amenities. Developers have also promised to build a neighborhood that goes beyond housing to lift residents in other ways.

The Syracuse Housing Authority won a $50 million Choice Neighborhoods grant from U.S. Housing and Urban Development for the project. That grant program encourages supports for childcare, recreation and small businesses in addition to building apartments.

Developers are using $2.17 million from that grant to pay for the demolition that started Tuesday, SHA Deputy Director Jalyn Clifford said.

While developers took a step toward building new housing this week, the social side of that promise is struggling.

Blueprint 15, a non-profit group that describes itself as a quarterback for the East Adams neighborhood, has stopped its original plans to build a $31.5 million children’s learning center and YMCA in the neighborhood.

The group’s leaders said their financing deadlines were not lining up with the housing authority’s progress on moving residents for demolition.

Sarah LaFave recently moved from handling the project for city government to directing it for Blueprint 15.

“For right now, the Children Rising Center remains on pause until some steps continue to happen,” she said. “I think demolition today is one of those first key steps. So we’re really optimistic that that continues to provide the path that’s needed for that project to come online.”