Home Leasing Seeks Community Buy-In for Development Project in Conception Stage

The campus of the shuttered Maria Regina College hosts a chapel built after World War II that sits closest to the intersection of Grant Boulevard and Danforth Street. The entire complex has caught the eye of Home Leasing, a Rochester-based construction and management company whose representatives held a meeting last Monday on potentially redeveloping the area.

“The only building that we’re not thinking can be renovated are the chapel, and honestly, that place is gorgeous,” Home Leasing development manager Jenifer Higgins told a crowd of Northside neighbors at the Magnarelli Community Center. “We would love to find a different use for the chapel, and because we’re not local to Syracuse, other than St. Anthony’s and Centerville Court, we are taking any and all suggestions on what to do with the chapel.”

The first suggestion of the night went to a neighborhood bar, followed by a burst of light laughter.

While Home Leasing isn’t new to Syracuse – their Gardens at St. Anthony project is still under construction on the South Side – Monday was Home Leasing’s first introduction to Northside, as part of what Higgins described as their “due diligence” phase.

According to Higgins, the plan is to turn the property into 140 – 160 apartment units for renters 55 or older. All residents must meet the age requirement, regardless of connection to another resident. She told attendees that the units would be income-restricted, which she emphasized was not the same as public or subsidized housing. Home Leasing would work to make rent affordable for residents.

While Home Leasing also plans not to designate units for Section 8 housing, Higgins said, “If someone comes with a voucher, we would not turn that person away.”

Residents in attendance, like John Robinson, asked questions about Home Leasing’s future engagement and how the project would ultimately be funded.

“It’s been vacant for six years, so it’s good that somebody’s coming in,” Robinson said. “Is this the absolute right thing to do? I don’t know that yet. We have to learn more about it. But on the outside, sounds like it could work.”

The meeting also drew the attention of local lawmakers like Assemblyman William Magnarelli and Common Councilor Pat Hogan.

“The site has been vacant for so long that it’s good to see someone taking an interest in it who has the ability and wherewithal to do something,” Magnarelli said. “This is very preliminary; this is kind of an introduction to who the people are who are behind it. And I think that’s good.”

The oldest building on the property is the Sisters of St. Francis convent built more than a century ago, in 1896. The all-girls Maria Regina College opened in 1963, according to a Facebook post from the Onondaga Historical Association. However, shifting fortunes forced the college to close in 1989, when the last class of occupational therapy assistants graduated. The sisters’ shrinking congregation drove the decision to put the convent for sale in 2013, according to Syracuse.com.

Higgins said that the overall project would likely have to get a tax agreement from the community, including the Common Council.

“I think it’s something we’re going to look at,” said Hogan, who serves on the Finance, Taxation & Assessment committee on the Common Council. “It gives us a glimmer of hope that something going to be done with that property that’s going to be conductive to the integrating of the neighborhood.”

Mark Congel, real estate executive and owner of Granite Development Company, paid half a million for the property in 2015 with the similar goal of transforming the property into several apartments. Syracuse.com reported that this project, named The Kimberly, stalled over a disagreement over the tax assessment. Higgins told residents that Home Leasing wouldn’t make a purchase until they have finished fundraising through New York state loans and private equity. Over email, Higgins said Congel gave Home Leasing access to the campus to assess the feasibility of the project.

“The problem is always managers,” Hogan said during the meeting.

If Home Leasing makes the decision to purchase the property, Higgins estimated that construction would take between 24 – 28 months, with nine additional months to finish contracting. The construction company plans to make their case before the Common Council at some point.

“I’m pleased at all the people who came out and who are clearly so invested in what happens on the campus,” Higgins said after the meeting, “We sometimes go to community meetings in other neighborhoods and no one shows up, and that tells us that people don’t care, and we want to be in neighborhoods where people want to build relationships with us.”

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