The Subject Property consists of six tax parcels (096.-03-01.1, 096.-03-05.0, 096.-03-06.0, 096.-03-07.0, 096.-03-08.0, and 096.-3-09.0) located at 155 Gifford Street, 240 - 248 West Onondaga Street, 252 - 254 West Onondaga Street, 116 - 118 Seymour Street, 120 - 122 Seymour Street, and 321 Granger Street in the City of Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York. The Subject Property is 3 acres and is owned by the Rescue Mission Alliance and the City of Syracuse. The Subject Property consists of a 46,890 square-foot three-story building with an adjoining 5,760 square-foot two-story warehouse in the northwest corner of the Subject Property. The main three-story building is used by the Rescue Mission Alliance for maintenance, storage, event space, community outreach programs, office space, and housing. The adjoining warehouse is used for storage and woodworking. There are asphalt parking lots to the south and east of the building. The remainder of the Subject Property is vacant and undeveloped with a few gravel parking / storage areas.
The Subject Property and surrounding area have been associated with dense urban development since at least 1892. The Subject Property was primarily occupied by residences from at least 1892 through 1911. During this time, a large industrial facility operated by Papwurth Burkhardt & Hurd Molding Co., a vacant warehouse, and a couple of commercial stores occupied the east side of the Subject Property. By 1911, the industrial facility was converted into multiple commercial stores, the warehouse was converted to the Chas. F. Saul. Carriage Factory, and the existing warehouse on the Subject Property was constructed and operated as a garage. Between 1938 and 1951, the residences on the north side of the Subject Property (along Gifford Street) were demolished, converted to parking lots, and an automotive repair facility with two underground gasoline tanks was constructed at 111 Gifford Street. During the same time, the carriage factory was converted into automotive repair garages, an automotive sales shop was constructed at 106 Seymour Street, the residence at 134 Seymour Street was converted to a printing shop, and a portion of the existing structure on the Subject Property was constructed in the northwest corner. At the time, the structure operated as the Gaylord Bros Bank & Library Supplies manufacturing building. In the 1950s, an addition was constructed on the south side of the Gaylord Bros manufacturing building and the existing warehouse on the Subject Property (which formerly operated as a garage) was used for miscellaneous storage. Also during the 1950s, all the automotive repair shops on the Subject Property ceased operation with the exception of one located at 120 Seymour Street. In the 1960s, two large commercial buildings were constructed along Gifford Street. In the early 1990s, the Rescue Mission began operating out of the former Gaylord Bros manufacturing building and by 2006, all structures on the Subject Property were demolished with the exception of the Rescue Mission buildings. Throughout the 1900s, numerous commercial stores operated on the Subject Property but the most notable were a printing and metal company at 218 West Onondaga Street between 1925 and 1944, a dry cleaner at 226 West Onondaga Street between 1949 and 1973, a dry cleaner at 228 West Onondaga Street between 1935 and 1944, a dry cleaner at 244 West Onondaga Street between 1935 and 1959, a laundry at 256 West Onondaga Street in 1930, a laundry at 100 Seymour Street between 1935 and 1944, a laundry at 104 Seymour Street between 1925 and 1959, an automotive repair shop at 106 Seymour Street between 1935 and 1939, an automotive repair shop at 120 Seymour Street between 1925 and 1993, an automotive repair shop at 111 Gifford Street between 1944 and 1954, a towing service at 129 Gifford Street in 1949, and a machine shop at 131 Gifford Street in 1949.
Numerous commercial / industrial properties have been located within clo