Since being established, the Land Bank has acquired 2,145 properties and sold 1,352. Several hundred have been demolished.

These demolitions happen for a variety of reasons – often a property is transferred to the Land Bank when the structure is too far gone and is in danger of collapse.

Demolition is the worst-case scenario, but one that does happen.

An easy way to understand why demolitions happen can be found in the recent Syracuse Housing Strategy (link in bio) – that the cost to properly and safely fix a home sometimes will not equate to an equal or greater value once the house is renovated (market gap vs affordability gap).

In these cases, the houses are often officially condemned by Hilary Donohue of City Link Architecture. Hilary has begun logging these homes in a digital collection prepared with New York Heritage in partnership with the Onondaga Public Library called “Syracuse Houses That Are No Longer.”

When the houses are demolished, architectural salvage does take place and the empty lot is then utilized for in-fill (new construction) or sold for $151 to the neighboring house to expand their property.

Currently, you can review 101 demolished homes on the archives.