The Syracuse Housing Authority is considering a plan to allow SUNY Upstate Medical University to build an 8-story optometry school on land now occupied by 92 public housing apartments near Interstate 81.
The SHA previously announced plans to tear down the apartments – some of the state’s oldest public housing – as part of an $800 million project to rebuild apartments for a mix of income levels. Building an optometry school in their place is a new development.
SUNY Upstate plans to use $125 million from this year’s state budget for the building, SUNY Upstate President Mantosh Dewan wrote in a letter of support for a federal grant application for the SHA.
Darryl Geddes, a hospital spokesman, said the SHA land is one possible site for the optometry school and depends on funding.
State lawmakers are holding hearings on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget under an April 1 deadline to vote. Her budget staff did not respond to questions for this report.
Assemblywoman Pam Hunter, who represents most of the residents of public housing, said she was unaware of the plan, could not find it in the budget and had several questions about the idea.
Hunter, D-Syracuse, asked who else could be interested in the valuable land? Do the tenants know about the proposal? Will they be displaced?
“How many other parts of the plan include these kind of private or public/private/not-for-profit partnerships on land that they own?” she asked about the greater footprint, which has more than 1,000 apartments slated to be torn down.
The current Pioneer Homes tenants would be moved to new apartments to be built on the west side of I-81, SHA Director Bill Simmons said. They could choose instead to take a Section 8 voucher to be used anywhere in the country. Tenants will be briefed on the plan next week, he said.
The proposed new hospital building would house the optometry school as well as a health clinic for people who live in public housing, records show.
Hunter questioned the need for another health clinic when the Syracuse Community Health Center just expanded on South Salina Street.
The new building would also house the hospital’s police headquarters.
The deal has several advantages for the housing authority, Simmons said.
It could result in millions of dollars for the housing authority to put toward new apartments on the other side of the highway, away from the highway and the ugly industrial hospital buildings already next door.
The plan also comes with promises to give residents better access to health care, security and job training, he said.
The hospital has proposed including a 1,200-square-foot health clinic for residents to get eye care and primary care, Simmons said.
The housing authority plans to build a new high-rise tower for seniors next door to the optometry school, also on land where current public housing units will be torn down. Those plans are still in development.
Next to that block is Toomey Abbott, an existing 24-story building for seniors.
Simmons said Toomey Abbott residents have always complained about security and the presence of SUNY Upstate police will help.
The hospital has also offered 10 paid positions and internships for a summer youth program and job shadowing opportunities for 40 young people who live in public housing.
The housing authority has previously released plans to rebuild more than 1,000 units of public housing near the elevated Interstate 81 viaduct. The redevelopment project is happening at the same time the state plans to remove the highway bridges and bring traffic to street level.
The focus so far has been on rebuilding the neighborhood west of the highway, along East Adams Street and toward South Salina Street. The SHA is partnering with the private developer McCormack Baron Salazar to raze the old public housing and build at least 1,400 new mixed-income apartments along with new streets, parks and a child learning center.
The proposed optometry school would be built on the east side of the highway next door to the SUNY Upstate campus. It is removed from the bigger proposed housing development by the elevated highway and, in the future, the improved Almond Street corridor.
Simmons said it is an unappealing site for housing because it offers a view of the back of the hospital, crowded with delivery trucks and dumpsters.
“We want to have high-quality, mixed-income housing on that footprint,” Simmons said. “That’s very, very tough to do when you’re facing the backside of a warehouse of a hospital.”
Simmons said the money is better spent to move the existing tenants into new housing on the other side of the highway.
“This is a $800 million project and there’s still a lot of gaps,” he said.
The housing authority and SUNY Upstate are still negotiating the financial arrangement. SHA could sell or lease the property. A typical arrangement for former public housing is to allow a private developer to develop the land on a 99-year lease, which would eventually revert to SHA. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would have to approve the deal, Simmons said.
Simmons said the commitment from SUNY Upstate will help with the application for a $50 million HUD Choice Neighborhood Initiative grant. The federal government wants to see that nearby anchor institutions support the housing development with money and with students and doctors who could live there and pay market-rate rents, he said. HUD denied the city’s first attempt at this grant.
A spokesman for Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, who appoints five of the seven board members on the housing authority, said the mayor is aware of SHA’s discussions with Upstate, but has not received a formal plan to review.
“Our priority is to ensure any new development benefits the surrounding neighborhood and protects existing residents by avoiding displacement,” Walsh said in a prepared statement.
Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli, D-Syracuse, who represents the district, was unavailable for comment, his spokeswoman said.
Contact Michelle Breidenbach | mbreidenbach@syracuse.com | 315-470-3186.
