Demolition work at the former Maria Regina College on Syracuse’s north side begins this week, and it signifies the start of new life for a property devastated by fire in March.
The city’s code enforcement department condemned the four-story structure and ordered demolition just a week after a spectacular blaze destroyed the former campus and Sisters of St. Francis Motherhouse.
Michael Collins, Syracuse Neighborhood and Business Development Commissioner, said it’s taken time for the property owner, future developer, and the state to hire Lion Construction to handle the job. They spent last week mobilizing the site, and will now, in some cases, remove rubble brick by brick.
“The contractor has agreed that they will try to save some of the bricks or other features of the exterior for some of the nuns that used to live there that have expressed an interest in being able to have a memento of the building,” said Collins.
The property sat vacant for years before the fire, before Home Leasing came up with plans to buy it and convert it into 150 units of affordable housing. Closing on the purchase has been pushed back to October because of the fire and demolition. Collins said work should begin soon after that.
“This is going to be unique in the fact that the safety concern will have been cleared out, and the fact that the building will have been fully demolished,” he said. “However, the removal of the rubble will happen post-closing. So that'll be one of the first things that happens."
The demolition is expected to take a month, but Collins said there could be variables.
“That disconnection to where the Motherhouse is connected in the back of the chapel and on the side to the other building, especially to that extension on the side, because they're not going to be able to know until they've got a good chunk of the main building down what the dependency of that newer addition has to a shared wall,” he said.
