Syracuse, NY, Lawmakers Skeptical of Fire Station Redevelopment Plan

Syracuse, N.Y. — A local developer’s proposal to create apartments and a restaurant inside a Syracuse fire station last used 12 years ago has encountered some skepticism from the city’s lawmakers, who are concerned about fire protection on the city’s Near East Side.

Mayor Ben Walsh’s administration is asking the Syracuse Common Council to approve the sale of the former Syracuse Fire Department Station 7 to JF Real Estate for $900,000.

The company responded to a request for proposals the city issued in February seeking private-sector redevelopment of the 1039 E. Fayette St. building. JF’s $2.5 million project would convert the two-story building into four apartments on the top floor and a restaurant on the ground level.

“We would get $900,000 from the developer, the property would go back on the tax rolls — broadly, a win," Assessment Commissioner Matt Oja told the council Wednesday at a study session.

But councilors recalled the fire department eyeing a reopening of Station 7 in recent years. In the summer of 2023, the council gave the SFD authority to apply for a grant that would have supported a project to bring Fire Station 7 back online. The justification was in part to handle a surge in population on the Near East Side that’s resulted from massive student apartment building projects going online. The grant funding never materialized.

In addition, Oja said, a comprehensive building study determined that a Station 7 redevelopment by SFD would not be feasible because of its condition and small size. The structure, built in 1954, has about 7,000-square-feet of building area.

“We do have other land in the neighborhood where hopefully in the future (a new fire station) is a possibility,” Oja said.

Councilors wanted to know more about that plan, but before SFD Chief Michael Monds could get to the podium, Councilor Pat Hogan suggested the council hold a separate committee meeting. The proposed sale runs through the council’s Economic Development Committee, which Hogan chairs.

After the meeting, Monds told syracuse.com that while the former Station 7 building is an ideal location, the building’s floor can no longer handle heavy fire vehicles, it’s out of compliance with other fire department industry standards and it lacks proper accessibility.

The department’s short-term measure to dealing with population growth in the area is the re-opening of the downtown Station 12 on West Genesee Street. That move will happen in early July, he said.

The department also wants to eventually build a new station on the Near East Side. Monds said the city has some parcels on University Avenue between East Fayette and Erie Boulevard that could work.

The chief said he welcomes a conversation about building new stations, but he’s also operating with the council’s budget that chopped about $2.4 million from Walsh’s proposal. SFD has not opened a new facility since 1996.

“We need to be thinking forward about a fire station replacement program, and it’s not going to be cheap, but the fire department’s going to be in our city forever,” he said.

Some councilors appeared miffed to learn that Walsh had issued a news release about the proposed sale to JF Real Estate earlier on Monday.

The release said the plan was subject to council approval. The administration said the project would fit in with efforts to develop the corridor between downtown and the University Hill area as the Interstate 81 viaduct gets torn down.

Station 7 closed as an active fire station in 2013. The site is in the new Community Grid corridor being created by the removal of the Interstate 81 viaduct

Fire Station 7’s location at 1039 E. Fayette St. is in the heart of an area where several large apartment buildings geared toward university students have opened in the past nine years with hundreds of new units and hundreds more are in the pipeline.

Former Mayor Stephanie Miner shut down Station 7 in 2013 to reduce costs at a time when the city was under tremendous fiscal pressure. A fire station had operated at the site for more than 120 years at the time.

The closure was met with strong opposition from firefighters, who said it would undermine public safety. Another vocal opponent was Hogan, who is running for mayor in 2025. In 2013, he mounted an unsuccessful primary challenge to Miner in which he launched his campaign in front of the closed building.

For the sale to JF Real Estate to move forward, the council must approve a local law. The earliest it could vote on that would its June 23 meeting.

If the council does allow the project to move forward, Oja said it would take about nine to 12 months for the city to complete the sale. The developer would likely be able to open the repurposed building within a year of that.

City reporter Jeremy Boyer can be reached at [email protected], (315) 657-5673, Twitter or Facebook.

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