Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - After several false starts, it appears that Syracuse’s Inner Harbor is finally about to be developed, but don’t expect it to happen too quickly.
COR Development – picked by the city to turn around the waterfront area – is giving a five to seven year timeline. Environmental issues are among the elements holding up the project.
COR plans to use $340 million to turn the underdeveloped harbor area into a walkable community. It would include everything from townhouses, senior housing, a hotel, and an Onondaga Community College branch.
It’s a project the city says is complex on a level very rarely seen around here.
“While that seems like a long time, we actually think that’s setting very real expectations. Oftentimes, project and developers over promise and before you know it, it’s five…seven years later and nothing happens,” said Deputy Commissioner of Business Development for the City of Syracuse, Ben Walsh.
The Creekwalk area, just west of the amphitheater, is the most contaminated section of the 28-acre project. When the harbor needed to be dredged, it was the dumping point for the material.
“Given some of the previous environmental issues associated with Onondaga Creek, whatever was on the bottom of the harbor and lake was deposited on the land so there’s a lot of issues that need to be identified in order to figure out how to clean that up effectively,” Walsh said.
The city knows some of the environmental problems with the area, but they were up front with developers. The city told developers it would fall upon them to determine the extent of the problems with the former disposal site and endure the costly clean-up.
Walsh says it’s taken a long time to even get to this point, so it’s a significant step forward. He added that the clean-up could start later this year. Work on the OCC branch could begin some time this year. The timeline’s details are still being ironed out by the city and COR.
