A newly proposed 72-unit student housing development on East Genesee Street is moving forward and should be completed by spring 2019, a developer said.

Construction on an apartment project at 1037 E. Genesee St. will start in spring 2018, said Norm Swanson, the property’s owner. The housing will not target undergraduates. Instead, Swanson’s development will be specifically designed for graduates and “professionals.”

“We basically bought the property up to University Avenue and we have been waiting to build some apartments that are like Skyler Commons,” said Swanson, president and owner of the Woodbine Group and 1037 East Genesee LLC, the project’s developer.

The property is across the street from the Genesee Grande Hotel, which Swanson also owns. It’s the former site of a Ronald McDonald House.

Swanson said the development will target graduate students because he has been involved in similar projects that drew their attention.

His company’s plan has received the approval of the Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board and the Board of Zoning Appeals, Swanson said.

“We had to present drawings, a floor plan and we began to make changes,” Swanson said.

Swanson said a building on the property had fire code violations, giving the developers an opportunity to demolish the building. This has allowed the company to make room for the proposed 72 units of new apartments, Swanson said.

It will take developers about eight months to finish the apartments, he said. Swanson said the building will look similar to Skyler Commons. The new building’s color will be different, though.

“We will be matching the colors to the house that we are preserving,” Swanson said. “That will be off-white, a tan and a brown.”

Swanson’s development is different than other luxury housing projects around the Hill, said David Mankiewicz, senior vice president of research, policy and planning at CenterState CEO, an economic development strategy company.

“It’s significantly smaller in terms of numbers of beds, so it won’t have as great an impact; it is already student housing, so there is not as much new inventory being added, and the developer is local, with a long track record of making investments, and holding onto those investments in University Hill,” Mankiewicz said in an email.

Swanson said that instead of having three- to four-bedroom apartments like Skyler Commons, his development will include one-bedroom apartments. He said rent will be about $1,500 per month.

“It is a good location because of transportation, (with) more easy access to the university, hospital and public housing,” Swanson said.

Published on November 15, 2017 at 11:36 pm

Contact Bianca: bmoorman@syr.edu