UPDATED: Dec. 19, 8:02 p.m.

Developers broke ground on the Syracuse University bookstore project this week – just in time to allow them to keep property tax breaks.

Cameron Group, the company behind the construction, received a site work permit on Monday. As of yesterday, it appears that work around the site has started, said Ben Walsh, executive director of the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency.

Cameron Group had until Friday to break ground on the $20 million project or it would lose its 30-year tax deal, Walsh said. The project includes the construction of a new SU bookstore and fitness center on 601 University Ave., which the group expects to open by January of 2015.

The deal, which was made with SIDA, would allow the company to pay the city of Syracuse $64,400 annually during a 30-year span, instead of the fully taxed amount of $379,000 per year. In exchange for the deal, Cameron Group agreed to begin construction within a year of executing the agency’s lease. SU would lease the space to Cameron Group for $1 a year.

The agreement was made after Cameron Group proposed to the city last summer that it needed the tax breaks in order to make the project financially viable.

Tom Valenti, a partner with Cameron Group, said the delays in construction were due to poor coordination among all parties involved.

“Nothing is in a straight line, and these problems are typical in development,” Valenti said. “But the good news is we’ve crossed the starting line.”

Valenti also maintains that construction had already begun when Cameron Group paid National Grid to remove power lines on University Avenue for the construction.

“As far as I’m concerned, when you spend a lot of money as we did, you’ve started construction,” Valenti added.

The project’s construction had an original deadline of Aug. 21, a year after the lease was signed. However, Valenti said it took longer than expected to make changes requested by the university.

After surpassing the original one-year deadline, many of the SIDA board members expressed frustration with the lack of progress, Walsh said.

Now that construction has begun, Walsh said he is less concerned about previous delays and more about the progress Cameron Group is making.

Valenti agreed that Cameron Group is now looking forward to focusing on the future of the project.

Said Valenti: “We’re happy to be promoting an area of central New York which has more people, income, and more going on than any other place. All of us should be working to enhance it.”

Published on December 18, 2013 at 6:28 pm

Contact Lydia: lawilson@syr.edu