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Neglected historic mansion coming back to life

Samuel Gruber, mycentralnewyork.blogspot.com

Credit University Neighborhood Preservation Association

Developers hope one day it will serve as a welcoming gateway to the Westcott and University neighborhoods.  

Crews have been restoring the badly deteriorated front and rear porches of the former Jewish war veterans building, also known as the Babcock Shattuck house.  work is also being done on the windows.  David Michel with the University Neighborhood Preservation Association says the workers found more deterioration than they anticipated as they began working on the 118-year-old house…

 "The contactor projects now that the exterior will be done in August.  The extra deterioration has delayed it a little bit.  Some of the past renovations covered up deterioration rather than fixing it."

Despite that, Michel says the project is within its contingency budget.  The plan is to restore the five-thousand square foot structure into four owner-occupied condos.  He says the architect is finalizing the interior designs.  Test marketing of the units is expected late this summer or early fall, pending approval of the state attorney general’s office.  The 1.2 million dollar project is funded by a combination of grants and loans. 

Scott Willis covers politics, local government, transportation, and arts and culture for WAER. He came to Syracuse from Detroit in 2001, where he began his career in radio as an intern and freelance reporter. Scott is honored and privileged to bring the day’s news and in-depth feature reporting to WAER’s dedicated and generous listeners. You can find him on twitter @swillisWAER and email him at srwillis@syr.edu.