See historic Syracuse building where new upscale apartments rent below market prices

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

The Smith Restaurant Supply building in the 1940s.

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

Developer Matthew Paulus has built 38 apartments in the 139-year-old former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. E. in Syracuse. He has renamed the building the Smith Supply Warehouse. March 4, 2022. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)

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Syracuse, N.Y. -- The former Smith Restaurant Supply building, since 1883 a fixture on the Erie Canal and later Erie Boulevard, has come back to life with 38 upscale apartments with lower-than-upscale rents.

Developer Matthew Paulus, of Paulus Development, opened the one-bedroom apartments for leasing late last year, with occupancies starting Feb. 1. They’ve been filling up fast.

“People just want to be here, and that hasn’t changed during the pandemic,” he said. “Seventy-five percent of the apartments are leased already.”

It’s easy to see why.

Many of the apartments feature hardwood floors, while some have concrete floors. Some also feature exposed brick walls and exposed wood beams.

All the units sport granite counters, stainless steel appliances, custom oversized windows with shades, custom California closets and an in-unit washer and dryer.

Like really tall ceilings? These apartments have them. Units in the 1883 section of the building have 16.5-foot ceilings, while those in the 1910 addition have 13-foot ceilings.

Amenities include a 24-hour fitness studio.

The apartments range from 500 to 750 square feet.

Rents vary based on income, a condition of construction loans from the state Housing Finance Agency and the Community Preservation Corp. On average, a resident of the building earning 80% of the area’s median income will pay from $985 to $1,150 a month in rent, according to Paulus.

In recent years, developers have been scooping up long-underutilized commercial buildings in downtown Syracuse and filling them with upscale apartments popular with young professional and empty nesters. Rents often start at $1,500 and go up to more than $4,000.

“When I built these, I said I want these to be the best deal in town,” said Paulus. “It’s not as exclusive as some of the properties that have come online recently, and we’re OK with that.”

The building also has 2,500 square feet of ground floor commercial space available for rent. Paulus said he is in negotiations with a potential tenant for the space.

Located at 500 Erie Blvd. E., the Smith building consists of two structures -- a three-story structure built in 1883 as a manufacturing facility and a six-story addition constructed circa 1910.

The Porter-Cable company and the H.A. Smith Machinery Co. occupied the building in their its years. It housed Smith Restaurant Supply from 1944 until early 2020, when the housewares and restaurant supply business moved to Empire Plaza in DeWitt.

Paulus bought the building from John Kuppermann, the owner of Smith Restaurant Supply and great-grandson of its founder, Hyman Smith, for $425,000 in 2019. He has renamed it the Smith Supply Warehouse.

The Smith building is just a few blocks east of the heart of downtown. The property sits close to the elevated section of Interstate 81 -- sometimes called a viaduct -- that the state plans to replace with a ground-level boulevard. The highway project will not encroach on the building, however.

New windows and insulation installed as part of the development keep traffic noise to a minimum.

Paulus said his project is the first of what he expects to be a surge of development along the planned new boulevard.

“I think it will change the way people look at this district,” he said.

This is Paulus’s second redevelopment project in Syracuse. In 2017, he and his father-in-law, Larry Losty Jr., built 92 apartments in the former R.E. Dietz Co. lantern factory in Syracuse’s Park Avenue neighborhood.

In early 2020, he transformed the former Ansco Camera Factory, a historic property in Binghamton, into a mixed-use development with 100 market-rate lofts and nearly 35,000 square feet of commercial space.

Earlier this month, Paulus launched a $40 million project to turn the former Endicott-Johnson Victory shoe factory in the Southern Tier village of Johnson City into 156 market-rate lofts and commercial space.

Rick Moriarty covers business news and consumer issues. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact him anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148

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