Despite past concerns over delays with the project, construction of the new Syracuse University bookstore has resumed and is on track to finish by June 2015, the building’s developer told the city’s industrial development agency on Wednesday.

“I think we’re all finally in good shape,” said Tom Valenti of Cameron Group LLC, the private company developing the bookstore.

The 85,000-square-foot bookstore project is being built at 601 University Ave., right next to the University Avenue Garage and not far from Marshall Square Mall. The project costs $20 million and will include a fitness center and retail space.

Valenti said construction started Dec. 17.  But the ground where the bookstore is being built froze quickly and the company felt it would be best to wait until the spring, he said. SU also had concerns with the project’s design — such as if noise and vibrations from the fitness center would affect the bookstore and other levels of the building.

In November, the agency ruled the tax deal for the project was in default because construction had not started on time. But Cameron Group resolved the issue a few weeks later after it broke ground on the bookstore. On April 3, the developer sent the city a letter addressing the agency’s frustrations with how long the project was taking. Ben Walsh, executive director of the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency, said after the meeting the agency’s directors were comfortable with the progress of the bookstore project and decided to take “no action.”

The industrial development agency is a public benefit corporation that’s designed to help with economic development in the city through incentives such as property tax exemptions. The agency’s Wednesday meeting was held downtown at Syracuse City Hall, which is about five minutes from SU.

The Common Council approved a 30-year payment in lieu of taxes agreement, or PILOT, for the bookstore in July 2012 by a 5-4 vote. The tax deal will allow the developer to pay the city $64,400 per year instead of $379,000 if the building was fully taxed. That will save the developer more than $9 million during the 30-year period compared to if the property was fully assessed.

The tax deal was controversial because a private company, not SU, would develop the project. The developer was also requesting tax breaks for a project on the Hill — not in a financially “stressed” area of the city. The vote came about a month after Destiny USA’s developer announced it would not expand the mall anymore, but would keep millions in tax breaks.

SU owns the property where the bookstore is being built and is usually exempt from paying property taxes. But Cameron Group — a private company subject to property taxes — is developing the bookstore. The university will lease parts of the building back from the company once the bookstore is built.

Published on April 24, 2014 at 12:51 am

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