Inner Harbor construction to begin soon

According to Syracuse.com, COR Development plans to begin its construction of the Syracuse Inner Harbor project before the end of the year. Aside from renderings that have already been made public, COR plans to present the city its design and site plans within a few months. Among the developments being planned on the 34 acres of former state land over the next 5 to 10 years are...

A marina.

A three-story, 150-room hotel along the south bank.

80 three-story condominiums.

Apartment buildings containing 210 apartments along the western bank (Four-story buildings with retail on the first floor).

A community boat house.

An academic satellite campus (COR is hoping for OCC) with a 50,000 square foot building on the southwestern corner - with a possible 100,000 square-foot expansion in the future.

A total of 120,000 square feet of commercial space.

A total of 200,000 square feet of retail specialty shops.

It's an ambitious project to say the least.

As much as I love its potential, I understand the criticism. Not only could it end up looking very "corporate", but we're giving one company a huge share of land and money and basically saying, "Here you go. Do what you want.". It reeks of Congelism. But I think in this scenario, given the history, successes, and mistakes that have lead us to have a huge contrast of desirable and undesirable settings within such a small amount of land (a half mile radius to be exact), this needs to happen in order to connect the dots between everything.

As it stands today, we have roughly four different vibes happening in the Lakefront...

1. A desirable and huge mall that feels totally disconnected from the rest of the city.
2. A scattered and unorganized arrangement of newly refurbished apartment buildings, shells of old industrial buildings, a creekwalk, and a nearby sewage treatment.
3. A very desirable area in Franklin Square; possibly the city's greatest pedestrian district and asset for original character.
4. A blank slate of land (with water) laying between the mall and Franklin Square.

And as much as I don't want Destiny USA to be associated with this city, we have to come to terms that it's here to stay and a part of our community. And if we want to improve its relationship between where it is right now (on the outskirts of town) to where it could feel psychologically (tied in with the city), we need to start building on the empty land that separates the two.

Picture if you will, a walk from shopping at Destiny USA, to the Inner Harbor for a stroll along the boardwalk, to beautiful Franklin Square for coffee, down the Creekwalk, and into Armory Square. I mean, it will provide so many different environments and relationships within such a short distance. And it could help connect everything without having to use a car in order to do it (ideally).

So this sounds hasty, but I'm all for this thing getting underway as soon as possible. However, I also understand the criticism because it puts a lot of hope and faith into one private company. If you have any thoughts, feel free to leave them below.

Back to the Onondaga Creekwalk: Part II

So in continuing with my creekwalk discovery, I took some pictures along the section that I hadn't traversed yet; the portion between Franklin Square and Carousel Mall.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. It's nice that this is actually here. As a Downtown resident, getting a bit of the urban / city feel mixed with water and nature is rare and a great combination that I really can't wait to take more advantage of come summertime.

Plenty of pictures after the jump...

Inner Harbor Proposals

I went to the Inner Harbor public hearing last night to see the potential plans for the area from three local developers. You can read more details about it here. Essentially, one of the three will soon get the go-ahead by the mayor to redevelop the harbor and mostly brownfield surroundings into something new.

First up was Hart-Lyman's plan which was, for lack of a better definition, based on landing a Bass Pro Shop, the second (albeit small) by J&A was redevelopment of a current building into rental apartments, and the third was COR's plan of redeveloping the entire area into a mixed-use community.

COR's plan brought a tear to my eye (not literally, but it should've). It was very detailed and exactly what I was hoping to find in one of the proposals. It's also eerily similar to the plan Andres Duany had in mind for the area roughly 10 years ago. Anyway, here's three slides from COR's presentation...

The overall masterplan...



Parcels B & C looking southwest...



Looking northwest from Kirkpatrick and Solar Streets...



I don't know how else to word it, but Syracuse needs to do this. The design is good on so many levels. It takes into account New Urbanism techniques, it brings OCC near Downtown, it utilizes the harbor for the community instead of relying on one business, it creates a pedestrian-friendly environment, it cohesively expands and enhances Franklin Square (something that already works), it promotes local boating, crew, and education, it looks both historic and new (which is the angle most developers should be playing in Syracuse), it brings in some retail, restaurant, and commercial aesthetics from places like Faneuil Hall in Boston, it creates affordable housing for both young adults and seniors, it feeds off the 99% occupancy rate in Downtown housing, and it capitalizes on some the energy recently created from the Creekwalk. I literally have no faults with their entire plan.

If people want Syracuse to behave like a real city, they need something like this that not only looks good, but enriches the community. This is something that could become truly unique not just to people outside the community but inside of it as well - something that a mega mall could never do. And really, how many other Upstate New York areas have the opportunity to do something like this and use it to their advantage? None?

If this ends up getting redeveloped as a Bass Pro Shop, I'm just going to pack-up and leave Syracuse.

OK, not really, but I'll pretend to.

The mayor intends to vote on one of the three redevelopment plans within the next month.