Built in 1929 and designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon — the same architectural firm behind the Empire State Building — the Chimes Building has long stood as one of downtown Syracuse’s most distinctive structures. For decades, though, much of its 12 stories sat vacant, a quiet reminder of a building waiting for its next purpose.
That purpose arrived through SEED Syracuse, the nonprofit affiliate of the Allyn Family Foundation, which purchased the building in July 2023 and set out to reimagine it as mixed-income housing at scale. The ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the formal completion of that vision, with the building’s interior now fully reconstructed into a mix of residential, commercial, and office space.
“Our foundation had done Salt City Market next door, and we are a real believer in mixed-income housing,” said SEED Syracuse board member Eric Allen at the ceremony, explaining the motivation to take the mixed-income model the foundation had piloted nearby and apply it at a much larger scale inside the Chimes Building.
152 Apartments, Designed for Every Income Level
At the center of the redevelopment are 152 apartments spread across the building’s upper floors, offering a deliberate mix of market-rate, affordable, and subsidized units. The goal, according to SEED Syracuse board president Meg O’Connell, is to keep housing costs sustainable for residents across the income spectrum.
The project arrives at a critical moment for Syracuse’s housing market. Earlier this year, roughly 1,400 apartment units across three city complexes were reported offline or at risk of becoming uninhabitable, adding further strain to an already tight market. The Chimes Building’s 152 new units offer a meaningful counterweight — historic character paired with modern, move-in-ready housing in the heart of downtown.
The redevelopment also restored the building’s original Art Deco character, with ground-floor storefronts brought back to the sidewalk to recapture the building’s historic street presence, and new commercial and office space woven throughout.
"Our foundation had done Salt City Market next door, and we are a real believer in mixed-income housing."
Eric Allen SEED SyracuseA Neighbor to Salt City Market
The Chimes Building sits directly across the street from Salt City Market, another Allyn Family Foundation development that has become a hub for local food vendors and mixed-income housing in its own right. Together, the two projects represent a sustained, deliberate investment in downtown Syracuse’s southwestern corridor — proof that historic preservation and housing affordability can move forward hand in hand.