Business revival brings new life to heart of downtown Syracuse

"As top-notch as our suburban developers are, there's no way they can duplicate that," Mareane asserts.

Many predict the revival will continue, at least for the short term. Yet further economic progress will have to overcome stiff competition from Carousel Center, an upscale shopping mall just north of downtown, as well as senior citizens' fears of purse snatchers and ne'er-do-wells roaming downtown streets after dark.

"I can't see anything but continued small-business growth in Syracuse," Paprocki declares.

Bart Bush, the city's director of economic development, points out that within the next year the corner of Jefferson and Salina streets will be the daytime destination of more than 1,000 new workers. They include 500 employees at Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield, 400 Niagara Mohawk workers, and 200 employees of Deluxe Corp., the St. Paul, Minn.-based check-printing company. When these office workers arrive, merchants will find new customers for greeting cards, umbrellas, housewares, and other items, Bush predicted.

"I think it's terribly exciting for people who want to be near what's going on," Bush confirms.

Webster, whose office door is less than half a block from where the action is, said he can envision a time when there might even be a waiting list to rent space at The Galleries.

"I'd like to think so. Why not?" he asks.

Martin McDermott, a staffer at The Downtown Committee, Inc. in Syracuse, says his economic-development agency will try to find a tenant to use the Dome Hotel for apartments or condominiums. The renovation trend may expand beyond that to include other old buildings as well, he notes.

As renovations continue office workers will realize "Hey, there's life down here. There's excitement down here," McDermott maintains. "They're going to see other people enjoying downtown and they're going to want to come downtown, too."

Mareane is confident that soon, retail stores will again occupy the ground floor of shops along the 300 block of South Salina Street, and small offices will again occupy the upper floors.

"I think there's going to be a change in the way people view their downtown," Mareane predicts. "We're going to finally put this 'downtown is dead' nonsense to bed."

Copyright Central New York Business Journal Oct 03, 1994
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