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The Syracuse Common Council approved a special permit to create a live music entertainment venue in downtown Syracuse during Monday afternoon’s meeting.

According to the resolution passed by the council, the venue will be in the basement of 333 South Salina Street and will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. from Monday through Sunday. Parthenon Books, which opened in June as Syracuse’s first independently-owned bookstore currently occupies the ground-floor level of the property. In August, Parthenon General Manager Selena Giampa told The Daily Orange the store is a “community hub.”

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Ryan Benz, a co-managing member of Acropolis Center LLC, requested the permit. According to the project’s Short Environmental Assessment Form, the venue will have a capacity of 390 people. It will also have a bar and will offer light food.

During the meeting, the council also approved $444,000 of funding from ARPA, President Joe Biden’s legislation designed to help America through COVID-19, to support disadvantaged business enterprises in the construction industry.

The United States Department of Transportation defines a DBE as a business where economically disadvantaged individuals own at least 51% of the business.

“African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian-Pacific and Subcontinent Asian Americans, and women are presumed to be socially and economically disadvantaged,” the program’s website reads. “Other individuals can also qualify as socially and economically disadvantaged on a case-by-case basis.”

Under the “One-Stop initiative,” the city, along with Onondaga County, will recruit, train, mentor and provide funding to new and existing construction companies, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh wrote in a statement following the Common Council’s approval.

“The DBE ‘One Stop’ is another step toward Syracuse’s vision of being a growing city that embraces diversity and creates opportunity for all,” Walsh wrote.

The DOT developed the Disadvantaged Business Enterprises program in 1983, which was designed to “remedy ongoing discrimination and the continuing effects of past discrimination in federally-assisted highway, transit, (and airport projects),” according to the DOT’s website.

Local stakeholders in the Interstate-81 “Big Table” initiative, which looks to include a wide array of voices when speaking on I-81, recommended that Syracuse join the program, Walsh wrote.

At the end of the meeting, the council approved the sale of 10 properties for a total of $1,200 to the Greater Syracuse Property Development Corporation, otherwise known as the Greater Syracuse Land Bank. The organization takes vacant or abandoned properties in the city, stabilizes them and proceeds to sell them to “responsible” buyers, according to the land bank’s website.

“Responsible, well-planned redevelopment of these properties will increase surrounding property values, improve quality of life for surrounding residents and stabilize the tax base making it easier for local governments to provide essential services,” the website reads.

Published on November 8, 2022 at 1:45 am

Contact Kyle: kschouin@syr.edu | @Kyle_Chouinard