Dan Lowengard asks for changes to lease contract; Stephanie Miner walks out. Renovations of two city schools are in jeopardy.
View full sizeThe Syracuse Developmental Center as seen from the air on June 18. Syracuse, NY -- Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner stormed out of a meeting Friday with city schools Superintendent Dan Lowengard after discussions broke down over the school district’s increasingly shaky plans to renovate two city schools.
The blow-up occurred after Lowengard asked Miner to modify several details of a $28-million, 15-year lease signed last May by a development company that plans to buy and renovate the old Syracuse Developmental Center, Miner said.
The company, Health Consortium-USA, would lease space at the center to the district for use as temporary classrooms for students displaced by the renovations.
Miner said she refused to make changes in the lease, as she has since developers first sought revisions in August. City officials say Health Consortium broke the lease’s Aug. 10 deadline to buy the property and pay the back taxes, but the developers say they have until mid-October.
About 30 minutes into the meeting, tempers flared and Miner walked out.
Miner said Lowengard accused her of not caring about the interests of the children involved. Lowengard said he was “the only one with skin in the game,” according to the mayor. ”I told him that was offensive . . . and that the meeting was over,” Miner said.
Lowengard said he did not intend to insult Miner and that he knows she is concerned about the students. He was trying to say that school district has “skin in the game” because the district will pay for the renovation projects. ”I know she cares deeply,” he said.
Common Councilor Bill Ryan, who attended the meeting, said it’s now clear that the plan to begin renovations in February at H.W. Smith and Dr. Weeks schools is “not going to happen.”
City lawyers are preparing bond documents to pay for renovation at two other facilities — Fowler High School and the Institute of Technology — neither of which requires moving students. But the other two projects will be delayed because they require swing space, now in doubt because of the faltering SDC deal.
Lowengard agreed that the Dr. Weeks and H.W. Smith projects may be delayed if the SDC deal fails.
Health Consortium-USA, a joint venture based in Houston, has been unable to obtain financing for its $13 million plan to buy and renovate the SDC, according to copies of e-mails that Lowengard brought to the meeting Friday. The Post-Standard obtained copies.
Six lenders have each declined to get involved without changes to the lease, according to an e-mail sent to Lowengard before the meeting from Gerry Mullins, a member of the development team.
Without revisions “this deal is over,” wrote Mullins, of Davico Realty Group, one of the partners in Health Consortium. “Even Donald Trump could not make this lease magically financeable without revisions.”
Health Consortium officials said in June they had financing lined up. Several times since then they have said the deal was about to close.
After the meeting with Miner, Lowengard said he is developing other plans for swing space. But he has not given up hope on the deal, he said.
“I think this is sort of the end-game of negotiation,” he said. “It’s really hard for me to comment on what is posturing, and what is a real deal-breaker.”
Contact Tim Knauss at tknauss@syracuse.com or 470-3023.