Syracuse housing plan brings unlikely pairing: prominent developer, former drug kingpin

Salina proposed development

This is a rendering of what Richard DeVito would like to build at South Salina and East Kennedy streets. He's holding a forum to get neighborhood input on the project.

Syracuse, N.Y. — A prominent Syracuse developer is hoping to build more than 100 units of affordable housing in two complexes on the city’s South Side, but he’s already facing opposition.

That opposition has led Richard DeVito of RD Reality Group, LLC, to seek help from an unlikely source: a man who has spent 28 years in prison and has devoted his post-prison life to preventing young people from following in his path.

DeVito is hoping to build a 72-unit complex on the 1600 block of South Salina Street and a 38-unit complex on the 100 block of Delaware Street. It’s an effort to increase the amount of inexpensive, quality housing in a city with high need and deteriorated housing stock, he said.

“There’s thousands of families out there that have no decent place to live,” DeVito said. “The need for affordable housing in our community is second to none.”

Before he can build, he needs to get the approval of the Syracuse Land Bank, which owns both lots. The Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board will need to approve the South Salina Street project because it’s in a historic district. And the zoning board will have to approve the project’s design that currently has less than one parking space per unit.

But DeVito’s biggest hurdle is convincing neighbors at the two proposed development sites that the complexes are a good idea. His proposal to the Syracuse Land Bank has twice been tabled so he can get more community input.

“I’m getting a lot of pushback,” DeVito said, from neighbors worried about changing the neighborhood character or further concentrating poverty in an area of the city with nationally high levels of concentrated poverty.

To help make his pitch, he reached out to his new friend, Tyrone Hines, a former drug kingpin who spent 28 years in prison for running a crack cocaine empire on the South Side. Since his release in November 2019, Hines has brought in former members of his crew to operate a hot dog stand and car wash in a South Side lot.

He’s also begun a mentoring program called Man Up and started shooting a movie based on his life.

DeVito is encouraging neighbors to meet at noon today at the lot at South Salina Street and Dr. Martin Luther King West to discuss the proposals.

Hines said he’s not offering up his lot because he endorses DeVito’s idea. Instead, he thinks it’s important for the community to have a say on what happens.

“My thing is, just let the community be heard, let the people in the community make a decision,” Hines told syracuse.com.

Tyrone Hines now employed by the Embassy Suites hotel and on his own runs a little snack stand in Syracuse on S. Salina.

Tyrone Hines was released from jail in November 2019 thanks to the First Step Act, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018. He's now employed by the Embassy Suites hotel and on his own runs a little snack stand in Syracuse on S. Salina.Dennis Nett | syracuse.com

DeVito said he reached out to Hines after reading a profile of him in syracuse.com. The pair have become friends, and DeVito said he seeks Hines’ advice on a variety of topics related to the South Side.

“We’ve developed a good friendship. We trust one another. He’s a first-class person,” DeVito said of Hines. “We need that type of leadership in our community. He’s changing people’s lives.”

The two properties would be available for tenants who earn either 50% or 60% of area median income. Median household income is a little over $61,000 in Onondaga County, making the maximum income to live there between about $31,000 and $36,000. Rent would be about $650 a month, he told the land bank.

If he gets approval for either building, it’s not clear when they’d be completed. He said the estimated cost for both projects is $26 million. He is seeking some state funding, according to Syracuse Land Bank minutes.

Katelyn Wright, the land bank’s executive director, told syracuse.com that it’s rare to get proposals for big apartment complexes like this on land bank property. The land bank typically gets offers on single-family homes to be rehabbed or smaller vacant lots after a property is demolished. The Delaware Street property has a vacant house still standing that would need to be demolished, she said.

“With any large proposal like this we’re very concerned about what the neighbors think,” Wright said. “There’s been a lot of emails and correspondence in opposition to this.”

DeVito is hoping those near both lots will hear him out today. He’s a longtime developer in Syracuse who has gotten credit for revitalizing some of Downtown’s historic buildings, including the new Redhouse Arts Center near Armory Square and the Dey’s Brothers building near Jefferson Street and South Warren Street.

This is DeVito’s first foray into affordable housing, he said, but he said he is working with a consultant who has experience throughout the state.

If it doesn’t work out, DeVito said, he’ll search elsewhere in the city for an appropriate spot to build the complexes, he said.

Contact reporter Patrick Lohmann at PLohmann@syracuse.com or (315)766-6670.

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