Townsend Tower and Harrison House will be used for housing for students, medical residents and visiting faculty members. The buildings will remain on the tax rolls.
Upstate Medical University today announced it has purchased Townsend Tower (front) and Harrison House (rear) apartment buildings in downtown Syracuse for housing for students, medical residents and some faculty members.
Syracuse, N.Y. -- Upstate Medical University will transform two vacant downtown high-rise apartment buildings formerly occupied by low-income tenants into upscale housing for its students, doctors in training and professors.
Upstate announced Thursday it has acquired Townsend Tower and Harrison House from the state and will spend about $18 million renovating them.
Dr. David Smith, Upstate’s president, said the housing is needed to support the academic medical center’s goal of increasing its 1,400-student body by 30 percent.
“We cannot do that in the landlocked situation we are in presently,” he said.
The acquisition is just the latest in a series of moves by Upstate to expand its footprint in Syracuse. It is negotiating to acquire Community General Hospital. It took over the former Kennedy Square housing complex between East Fayette and East Water streets last year where it and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry are building a biotechnology research center. And two years ago it bought the former Four Winds psychiatric hospital building at 650 S. Salina St. to house a child care center.
Upstate is an academic medical center with a teaching hospital and colleges of medicine, nursing, health professions and graduate studies. It is Onondaga County’s largest employer.
Empire State Development Corp., a state agency which held the mortgages on the properties, took over the two 21-story apartment buildings near Townsend and Harrison streets last year. The complexes, which each have 200 units, struggled for years with high vacancies, debt and poor maintenance. They were built in 1973 with financial help from the state to provide affordable housing for low- and moderate-income people.
The Syracuse Housing Authority helped all former tenants find new homes. The buildings have been empty since January.
The state transferred the property last week to Upstate. In exchange, Upstate will pay a portion of the property’s $2 million in back taxes owed to the city and county.
The property is held by Upstate Property Development Corp., a private entity that is part of the Upstate Foundation. The property will remain on the tax rolls.
By keeping the property private, Upstate will have more flexibility to partner with businesses that can manage the property and provide amenities for residents like recreation facilities and a grocery store, Smith said. It would be much more difficult to do that if the property were owned directly by Upstate. That’s because Upstate is part of SUNY and is subjected to regulations that make it difficult to contract with private businesses.
Upstate will borrow money to pay for the project by issuing bonds and pay off the debt with rent revenue from the buildings, he said. Renovation work will begin by the end of this year and is expected to be finished by fall 2012.
Upstate has one residence hall, Clark Tower at 105 Elizabeth Blackwell St., which can accommodate 190 students. Many students don’t want to live there because it has double rooms, said Julie White, Upstate’s dean of student affairs.
“Our students have told us for a long time we need better facilities for them,” White said.
The renovated buildings will probably have about 350 apartments because units will be enlarged and some space will be set aside for amenities, Smith said. A parking garage will probably eventually be built for tenants, he said. The units also will be available to Upstate faculty.
“Young faculty and visiting professors have been crying for us to find a way for them to live within close proximity of Upstate and the Hill,” Smith said.
The buildings are within walking distance of Upstate’s main campus and adjacent to its outpatient clinics located in the University Health Care Center.
David Mankiewicz, a senior vice president of CenterState Corp., said the project will boost downtown.
“This will bring new life and vitality to downtown Syracuse,” Mankiewicz said. “The students will infuse a lot of excitement and energy into the community.”