Syracuse Common Councilors have approved the sale of more than $26 million in bonds to cover the cost of demolishing the former Syracuse Developmental Center. It’s the final approval needed to take down the sprawling buildings and move forward with redevelopment of the 47-acre site adjacent to the zoo.
The city will ultimately be reimbursed by the state, which previously set aside the money to clear the property. With the funding in hand, Commissioner of Business Development Eric Ennis told councilors now they need to find a contractor.
“We'll do the initial competitive bid which allow us to select the larger overarching firm that takes on the project, but then even after that firm has been selected, our goal is to continue to promote these opportunities to service subcontractors on the project as well,” Ennis said.
Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens said the state requires that 30% of the work be subcontracted. That includes reaching out to minority and women owned businesses.
“Hauling, work on the site preparation. Smaller companies could absolutely do that work and depending on where the project ends up, it's going to be a significant even subcontract,” Owens said.
The trouble is, there’s a backlog at the state level to process the applications and get them in the state directory. City Budget Director Tim Rudd said there’s a lot of potential for local firms.
“It's a lot of money that seems like good prep for I-81 type work. It's probably a good resume builder for companies. If you know people, tell us who they are, we'll call them. We'll do everything we can to get them on our directory, which is now available online to get them to apply to the state to try to call people at the state to process the application. But we need to do that now because everyone wants to do this in November,” Rudd said.
Rudd said they may need to enlist the help of the area’s state lawmakers to expedite the applications and get local companies on board for the work. Demolition will begin next year. About $3 million of the state’s allocation will be used to improve infrastructure, including water and sewer lines, access roads, sidewalks, tree planting, and lighting in preparation for development.