Syracuse, NY — The federal government has awarded CuseCar a $1.8 million grant to set up fueling stations for cars that use alternative fuels.

The grant from the Department of Energy’s Clean Cities Stimulus Funding is part of a $3.7 million project to create a fuel hub in the former mail and freight depot on Burnet Avenue near Interstate 690, as well as 68 stations around Onondaga County.

The grant was announced this morning by Rep. Dan Maffei, Synapse Partners LLCl and Universal Brownfield Revitalization Corp.

CuseCar, a nonprofit company that rents cars by the hour, started up last summer. It was one of 12 organizations in March to win state grants for “sustainable” transportation projects that could help reduce the environmental impacts of cars and trucks.

“We hope this creates behavioral change for people,” said Synapse Partner Brian H. Macrae said this morning.

The biggest change people will notice about the project is the demolition of the deteriorating roof on the train platform visible from I-690. The group plans to install solar panels in place of the roof that will charge the fueling station on Burnet Avenue, Macrae said.

The hub will fuel electric, hydrogen and natural gas powered vehicles.

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Two remodeling projects were announced in the City of Syracuse Monday. One of them on Burnet Avenue, right across the street from News 10 Now. The former mail and freight depot of the old train station will have two green uses.
“It will become the alternative fueling hub and it will be the station for what we’re calling HEG stations – hydrogen, electric and gas stations. The second use will be the Green Infrastructure Facility Training Center, the GIFT Center, where we will have facilities where we can train workers or re-train workers in the green jobs that are now in our area,” said Vita DeMarchi, a managing partner with Synapse Partners, the company working on the reconstruction.

Both buildings will be restored using green technology.

Up the road on South Crouse Avenue, another energy-saving project is underway for the Hotel Skyler, Syracuse’s first LEED-Certified Hotel. It’s the third vacant building the Woodbine Group is remodeling into a hotel.

“We have taken older buildings that have zero jobs and converted them. When we finish, our three hotels will have an excess of 200 permanent jobs,” said Norman Swanson, the operator of Hotel Skyler.

Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll says the hotel is about much more than green technology and job creation.

“A hotel will be large attraction. Why is that important? That’s an economic benefit to downtown Syracuse. People will come to a hotel but then they’ll go out, they’ll shop, they’ll eat while they stay here. So there is a correlation between these types of investments and the economic benefits they provide as well,” said Driscoll.

Both projects coincide with the International Healthy Buildings Conference, taking place in Syracuse this week. TThe conference brings people from around the globe together to discuss how to make buildings healthier, more sustainable places to live and work in.

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