Three Syracuse City School buildings up for sale

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — The City of Syracuse is looking for buyers for three of its buildings that are currently being used by the Syracuse City School District, including the district’s administrative offices on Harrison Street, which is also home to the board of education meetings.

The city is looking for buyers with a proven track record to take over three of its facilities, re-purposing the properties, including quality housing units, and getting the buildings back on the tax rolls.

“We’ve issued almost two sets of requests for proposals. The first one is for the re-purposement and re-development of the existing buildings themselves,” said Eric Ennis, Deputy Commissioner of Business Development.

The second request for proposal is seeking out office space and usage for what’s currently being housed at all of its buildings.

The nearly century-old properties include:

• 725 Harrison Street, the school district’s administrative offices.

• 571-581 East Genesee Street, the school district’s Johnson Vocational Center.

• 200-232 Park Avenue and Plum Street, the school district’s maintenance facility.

Ennis says this has been many years in the making in terms of Syracuse working with the city school district on buildings that may not be fully utilized or not suited.

“The overall goal here is to improve efficiency but also create more modern workspaces and better programming by having locations that could be considered for that,” said Ennis.

Opening these properties up for new development could potentially create new opportunities within the city, including more housing and more jobs. Something Syracuse says is a top priority.

“As we’ve looked at the city’s real estate portfolio, looking at those opportunities for leveraging greater investment and really looking at the long-term vision for the surrounding neighborhoods, we believe that this is really a step in the right direction to pursue new investment, new economic development, and hopefully, new modernized spaces for where these programs eventually end up,” said Ennis.

The city will continue accepting proposals through the end of May as part of the request for proposal process. Inquiries can also be submitted.

Once the city receives all submissions back in the coming months, they will be reviewed and discussed with all involved.

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