Syracuse, N.Y. — Dey's Plaza, the former Dey Brothers Department Store turned into a residential, retail and office center, is getting 16 more luxury apartments.
Developers Robert Doucette and Richard deVito of Paramount Realty Group plan to turn the fourth and fifth floors of the former downtown Syracuse department store into 16 apartments averaging 1,700 square feet.
Doucette said they hope to begun construction before the end of the year. The build-out will take about a year, he said.
Developers plan to add 16 more luxury apartments to Dey's Plaza at 401 S. Salina St. in downtown Syracuse. The former Dey Brothers Department Store building contains office and retail space, and 45 apartments.
The new units will bring the building's total to 61 apartments. Rents for the apartments range from $1,200 to $1,650 a month, not including utilities. All 45 of the existing apartments in the building are leased.
Doucette said the fourth and fifth floors formerly were occupied by office tenants, but the 30,000 square feet of space is now vacant.
He said the developers have been unable to find new office tenants for the space, so they made the decision to convert the two floors to apartments.
"It's really very nice living downtown," said Doucette, who has taken up residence in one of the units. "It's a great place to live."
The cost of the conversion will be $2.8 million, according to an application the developers filed with the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency for an exemption from sales taxes on construction materials. The agency will hold a public hearing Nov. 18 on the requested exemption, which the developers estimate would save them $76,800.
Located at the southeast corner of South Salina and East Jefferson streets, Dey's Plaza is a mixed-use building. In addition to 45 apartments, it has several office tenants, the largest being Bank of New York Mellon, which recently renewed its lease for three years. A Cafe Kubal coffee shop is on the first floor.
The historic building was built in 1893 for Dey Brothers
Department Store. The store, which was named Addis & Deys in its last years, closed in 1993. It was acquired by an entity created by the city of Syracuse and converted into offices in 1995, with Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. occupying 120,000 square feet, or about half the building.
Doucette and deVito bought the landmark from the Syracuse Economic Development Corp. for $6.7 million in 2009 and converted much of it to apartments the next year.
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