Biotech Center for Kennedy Square Posted on Post-Standard Thursday, April 10, 2008 By Maureen Nolan Staff writer Syracuse, NY: The vast and vacant Kennedy Square apartment complex will come down, possibly by this summer, to make way for a $30 million to $40 million biotechnical research center, classrooms and research space, state officials announced Wednesday. SUNY Upstate Medical University is taking over ownership of the property. The research center will cover four of the site’s 14 acres, and Upstate will seek proposals from private developers to create commercial projects and student residences on the other 10 acres, Upstate President Dr. David Smith said. “We expect this will bring hundreds of millions; in fact, I would give it a conservative estimate of $200 million, of private sector investment into this city,” said Daniel Gundersen, Upstate chairman of the Empire State Development Corp., the state’s main economic development agency. “It will transform an area of downtown which is so important as a nexus between University Hill and the city.” But Twiggy Billue, of the American Friends Service Committee, didn’t find much opportunity for low-income people as she listened to the future being laid out for the property. Kennedy Square was built to provide close to 400 apartments for low- and moderate-income tenants. Read more.
Tags: American Friends Service Committee, Central New York Biotechnology Research Center, Economic Development, Empire State Development Corp, Kennedy Square, SUNY Collage of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, Syracuse Housing Authority, Upstate Medical University
