A million dollars of Onondaga County funding, spread over several projects in one of the county’s long-neglected neighborhoods, is helping some local businesses grow roots.
The three-story brick building on South Salina Street is less than a dozen blocks from downtown Syracuse. It’s small with a storefront on the first floor and two apartments above. It had been vacant for two decades, and now with the help of the county’s Main Street Initiative, it’s home to OnaJava Coffee & Soul Cafe. Owner Reggie Pickard said the space not only offers lattes and breakfast, but a place to use Wi-Fi for work, or just hang out and listen to music.
"It gives a different cultural feel for the people in my community because they've never seen anything like this in the community; only in the outside," Pickard said.
It’s one of 16 projects on South Salina Street, meant to spur development in a community Onondaga County Legislator Charles Garland said was neglected for years. But that’s changed, with new business and housing projects popping up in several places.
"We can all agree and admit this is the most economic development funding that we've seen on the south side in terms of housing infrastructure," Garland said.
The County’s Main Street Initiative Program is one of the drivers. County Executive Ryan McMahon said South Salina Street is one in the county. He expects this investment to spur other investments, as it has in more traditional small-town Main Streets across the county.
"And so when you look at the reality that 16 properties are going to have investment, that's contagious and it makes the neighborhoods around here more attractive for more private sector development and investment," McMahon said. "So what we've seen elsewhere with these projects is that the corridors get solidified, you get businesses that are there, you get neighbors utilizing the small businesses and people then invest back in the housing as well."
