Residents on Syracuse’s north side will finally see progress this week as demolition begins on the former Maria Regina convent. A fire destroyed the historic Motherhouse in late March, making it unsafe for redevelopment.
Nearby residents and passing traffic have probably been wondering when work might begin on the 14-acre campus.
Commissioner of Neighborhood and Business Development Michael Collins said the demolition company is bringing equipment to the site and is expected to start the process later this week. A backhoe and dumpster can be seen behind the fence surrounding the property.
“The demolition is done in a way that is going to bring the building down safely," Collins said. "And then once the main structure is down, then it's really going to be very delicate hand work to be able to do the detaching on those two facades.”
Collins said they want to preserve the rest of the complex for redevelopment into 150 units of senior housing.
“This is an expensive demolition," Collins said. "It is already an expensive project that has a lot of creative financing into it, so we needed to make sure that we could both protect public safety and the development project going forward.”
Collins said they hear regularly from neighbors that they want to see the campus brought back to life, even without the Motherhouse as the centerpiece.
“It's really hard to wait. And it's especially hard to wait when you don't see signs of progress," Collins said. "The negotiations that it takes to get to this point are not the kind of things that make headlines on it on a day-to-day basis. So we've really worked hard to make sure that we can get to this point as safely and as quickly as we can.”
Last week, the property owner reached an agreement for the demolition with developer Home Leasing. Collins said it’ll take about a month to remove the Motherhouse. He expects the developer to close on the project and begin construction this fall.
