SYRACUSE, N.Y. — It’s hard to miss those white statutes on 690 waiting at the old train station. Soon, the platform and building they’re waiting at will be getting a major facelift.
“We became interested in the restoration of the New York Central Railroad Depot a number of years ago because it represents the eastern gateway into downtown Syracuse. And it sits in a dilapidate presentation into our city,” said Vita DeMarchi, a managing partner with Synapse Partners LLC.

The News 10 Now side of the train station, the passenger side, was restored beginning in 2002.

The exterior and interior of the other half, the mail station and depot building, will be renovated and restored, still keeping many of the buildings’ historic features.

The buildings are on the New York state and national historic preservation lists.

“It is challenging because to restore this to those standards adds substantial cost, basically, to what we have to do. But on the other hand, it’s such an important feature in this city that we feel it’s an essential thing to do,” said Eckardt Chris Beck, a managing partner of Synapse Partners LLC.

These buildings have a lot of neat futures in them, including tunnels that lead over to the News 10 Now building and a jail cell.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is that different prisoners would be taken off the train and actually interned here. This being on a national historic registry, we are restoring this, basically, to meet the national historic registry standards,” said Beck.

The train station operated from 1936 to 1962, when the rails were replaced with interstate 690.

A formal announcement will be made on Monday, detailing exactly how the buildings will be used.