Syracuse, N.Y. – A company that provides student housing has offered to buy the Public Safety Building in downtown Syracuse and convert it to apartments after the police and fire departments move into new space.
Syracuse-based Foundation Assets, LLC, has proposed to buy the six-story building pending a detailed inspection of the interior. The company has an ambitious plan to renovate the 61-year-old building -- which includes 212 outdated, windowless jail cells and sits next to the existing downtown jail building -- into 100 to 150 apartments.
It’s a longshot, says company co-founder Steve Vassallo, but one that intrigues city and county officials. After issuing a request for proposals, they chose Foundation’s redevelopment proposal to pursue.
“I don’t know how many applications they got for this, but I’m guessing a lot of folks were probably looking to knock it down,” Vassallo said. “That’s not how we operate. Our expertise is in adaptive reuse and historic rehabilitation, so that’s what we submitted.”
The developers will probably need federal historic tax credits to make the long-shot project a reality. City and county officials declined to say how many proposals they received.
Police and fire officials plan to move into new offices by February at 1153 W. Fayette St., a century-old former factory that is being renovated, city officials said.
Their current home, the Public Safety Building at 511 S. State St., opened in 1964. It sits between the Onondaga County Justice Center jail and the criminal courts building. The dilapidated structure has long been considered overdue for renovation.
The PSB is co-owned by the city and county. The city owns 61% and pays the county, which owns 39%, to manage and maintain the building. County officials in February issued the RFP to which Foundation Assets responded.
The tentative sale price has not been disclosed because final negotiations are still under way, but Foundation’s offer amounts to “seven figures,” said Matthew Oja, the city’s commissioner of assessment.
The Syracuse Common Council will vote Monday on a resolution allowing Foundation partners to inspect the interior of the building in preparation for finalizing the purchase agreement. The inspection will help determine what level of environmental costs the developer would face with a renovation, Vassallo said.
Foundation is looking to create a variety of workforce and market-rate apartments in the building, some of which might be marketed to police officers, firefighters or other first responders, Vassallo said. The jail cells might be converted into short-term rentals or artist workspaces, he said.
“I think we would try to lean into that, you know, acknowledge that it was a jail, and try to find ways to use the space creatively,’’ he said.
Vassallo estimated that the project could cost $25 million to $35 million, but said it depends on several factors. Perhaps the biggest factor to making the project work would be to get the PSB designated as a historic landmark to make it eligible for historic preservation tax credits.
That’s not as far-fetched as it sounds, city officials said. The 61-year-old building is an example of “mid-century modern’’ architecture, which the federal parks service deems eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
Financing the Public Safety Building project would probably depend on making the building eligible for historic tax credits, Vassallo said.
Assuming Foundation signs a purchase agreement that is approved by the city and county, it would likely take about a year to work through the historic designation and put together the financing necessary to close on the deal, Vassallo said.
One key question is whether the State Historic Preservation Office or the federal parks service would allow Foundation to punch windows into the jail cells. Without windows, the space would be difficult to use. Two years after the PSB opened in the mid-1960s, federal prison inspectors called the jail “demoralizing” because the facility had no windows and had lousy ventilation.
Foundation also must agree to allow prisoners to be transported between the Justice Center and the court building through a basement passageway in the PSB that is shut off from access to the rest of the building.
“If it becomes an apartment building, they’re going to have prisoners escorted underneath in their basement,’' said Undersheriff Jeffrey Passino.
Foundation Assets, based in Syracuse, owns rental properties around Syracuse University and other colleges, including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cornell University and Binghamton University.
The founders – Vassallo and his wife, Laney, brother Greg, and college friend Ryan Day – all grew up in the Syracuse area and attended Syracuse University.
They had each pursued professional careers, but in 2018 they banded together to buy two rental properties on Euclid Avenue. With advice from an industrial design class at SU, the foursome renovated the properties hoping to attract students who appreciated the whimsical flourishes and care.
They turned the dungeon-like basements into collaborative workspaces, used vibrant colors on the walls and furnishings, and spared no expense.
“We ended up investing on those first two houses roughly what we paid for them,’’ Vassallo said. “At the time, people were like, that’s insane. Why would you do that?”
At two other apartment houses on Euclid, the partners had to jack up the houses and rebuild the foundations. The cost was astronomical, Vassallo said.
“We certainly questioned our business model at that point,’’ he said. “Thankfully, the students have really responded to our approach.”
Foundation now has at least eight rental properties in Syracuse, 12 near RPI in Troy, one near Cornell and one at Binghamton University, according to the company website. Along the way, the company has completed five historic renovations, including a 95-year-old, mixed-used building at 719 E. Genesee St., where its office is.
“They did a really nice job on 719 East Genesee,’’ said Oja, the city commissioner. “It looks like they’re really finding their niche.”
The PSB would be the toughest project yet.
“I don’t think I’d be breaking any news by saying this would be a difficult project,’’ Vassallo said. “And that’s why, you know, we want to be pretty methodical with our diligence. But we’d love to make it work and see it come alive.”
Staff writer Tim Knauss can be reached at:email|Twitter| 315-470-3023.
