A redevelopment plan for the former Shoppingtown Mall property might finally be coming to fruition following year of legal battles. Onondaga County has chosen a developer for the 65-acre site after a previous agreement fell through.
The news of redevelopment just can't come soon enough for residents who live around the county-owned site. Driving through the pothole-filled driveways and parking lots, it's obvious the property is a mess. Doors and windows are boarded up. Years of vacancy and abandonment have clearly taken their toll. Vegetation is overgrown everywhere you look.
Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon sees potential among the blight.
“I think of housing. I think of targeted retail. I think of jobs," he said. "I think walkability, places where people come together and enjoy themselves.”
McMahon said he envisions what amounts to a small downtown mixed-use development.
“This is an area where people are going to want to live. It's an area where people are going to come to work," he said. "It's an area where you'll be able to buy things and you'll go to restaurants. And then there'll be community spaces”
The county has chosen Denver-based Continuum Partners, LLC to lead the development. CEO and Founder Mark Falcone has roots in Central New York. He said he considered taking on the project a few years ago but couldn’t mobilize the investment capital to make it happen.
“What's happened with Micron and what's happening in your economy now has changed the trajectory," he said. "I can now talk to the kinds of significant capital investors that it takes to make a half billion dollar project happen. I can actually get their attention and get their interest and engagement in something like this.”
Falcone said the partnership of the county and community also put the project on a stronger path.
McMahon said phase one begins now. That includes securing town and county approvals for financing infrastructure improvements. It's not known which parts of the mall will come down or be repurposed. McMahon said more project and timeline details will be announced in the weeks and months ahead.
