Greater Syracuse Land Bank reports slower pipeline, large inventory and tight finances

The Neighborhood Preservation Committee heard an annual report from the Greater Syracuse Land Bank on its inventory, site-assembly work and finances during a meeting where committee members pressed staff on foreclosure timing, floodplain properties and redevelopment prospects.

Caitlin Wright, a representative of the Greater Syracuse Land Bank, told the committee the land bank acquired 77 properties in the previous year and has acquired more than 2,000 properties from Syracuse City since the land bank began. Wright said the organization currently controls about 800 properties in its inventory, including roughly 150 structures and about 650 vacant lots, and that about half of the vacant lots are “shovel-ready” for new building.

Wright said the land bank’s site-assembly work — the multi-step process of consolidating nearby parcels for future development — proceeds slowly because demolitions require grant money, legal lot-line adjustments and the timing of individual foreclosures. “If we could speed up the foreclosure pipeline and catch up with all that backlog, we could speed up our site assembly process and have a lot more shovel ready sites ready to go,” Wright said.

Why it matters: the land bank’s inventory and pace of foreclosures affect how quickly lots can be cleared and marketed for housing or other redevelopment. Committee members repeatedly asked about specific neighborhoods and properties, and Wright described active programs and constraints in multiple parts of the city.

Key inventory and development updates

- The land bank acquired 77 properties in the last year and more than 2,000 since formation, Wright said. She estimated the city still has “over 1,500 seizeable properties” remaining to work through the foreclosure backlog.

- The land bank reported about 350 building lots in inventory that are ready for development and more lots that are in the process…