U.S. Representative Daniel Maffei (D-DeWitt) at the podium, left, announcing a federal grant for the redevelopment of the former Mail and Freight Depot building on Burnet Avenue into an alternative-fuels station. Looking on behind Maffei are Eckardt (Chris) Beck and Vita DeMarchi, managing partners of Synapse Partners, LLC of Syracuse, center, and Syracuse Mayor Matthew Driscoll, far right.

SYRACUSE – A piece of Syracuse’s transportation history that has fallen into disrepair is being redeveloped to benefit an emerging business sector.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded CuseCar a grant of

$1.8 million toward developing an alternative-fuels station at the former Mail and Freight Depot at 400-448 Burnet Ave. in Syracuse.

The total cost of the project is $3.7 million.

The 60,000-square-foot building is visible from Interstate 690 near the Townsend Street exit and known for its statues depicting people waiting for a train.

CuseCar is a not-for-profit car-sharing organization comprised of vehicles using alternative fuels. CuseCar utilizes the expertise of the for-profit Synapse Partners, LLC – a Syracuse-based environmental risk-management firm. Four partners of Synapse (which includes Synapse Risk Management and Synapse Services), launched CuseCar in September 2008.

More than 100,000 vehicle drivers pass the train depot every day, see a rundown structure, and may not know what it once represented.

Eckardt (Chris) Beck, one of four managing partners at Synapse, doesn’t feel the community should look at the train depot as a building that once had a purpose, but now no longer does.

Beck calls the project “the connection to the Connective Corridor.”

The grant comes from DOE funding contained in the federal economic-stimulus package, U.S. Representative Daniel Maffei (D-DeWitt) said. Maffei, who announced the money Sept. 14, said the building is an eyesore.

People have been asking for specific examples of how dollars allocated for green-technology projects will benefit Central New York, he added.

“What we’re doing today is showing you,” Maffei said at a press conference.

He feels people driving past the structure don’t even see it anymore, saying it’s been “lost to history.”

In addition to the federal grant, CuseCar is also using a $250,000 grant from the New York State Parks and Recreation Department’s Environmental Protection Fund and seeking additional grant money for the project, said Vita DeMarchi, another managing partner at Synapse.

Both Beck and DeMarchi have also directly contributed “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to date on the project, according to Beck.

The group started planning for this project in May 2007.

Synapse Partners employs a total of 16 people, seven full-time and two part-time employees in Syracuse, four full-time employees in Branchburg, N.J., and one full-time and one part-time employee at its office in Alpharetta, Ga.

Three of the seven full-time employees in Syracuse operate the CuseCar initiative.

Built in the 1930s, the former Mail and Freight Depot is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Interstate 690 replaced the rail lines the depot served in the 1960s, according to CuseCar.

Project outline

CuseCar will use the grant to install 68 electric charging units throughout Onondaga County. The units will interface with National Grid’s developing Smart Grid program, according to the nonprofit.

The project also includes the construction of seven charging stations at the fueling site on Burnett Avenue. Solar panels to be installed on the former train depot will feed energy to the seven stations, the company said.

The project also includes the installation of a compressed natural-gas fueling station at the Burnett Avenue site. Plans also call for a hydrogen-gas fueling station in a partnership with General Motors Co.

In addition, the redeveloped building will house a Green Infrastructure Facility Training Center. The center will include a rooftop classroom for demonstrations on green roof and solar panel installations.

Several contractors will be involved in the restoration effort, which is set to begin in early November, Beck says.

The contractors will supply and install green roofing materials and solar panels, and handle the deconstruction of the train trestle, which is laden with asbestos, he adds.

CuseCar has yet to sign any contracts for work. Synapse will coordinate the contractors, said DeMarchi.

Holmes-King-Kallquist & Associates of Syracuse is serving as the project architect.

The firm hopes to have the work completed by the middle of next year, DeMarchi added.

Most cities would demolish the building, but finding new and alternative uses is the better option, said Richard Fedrizzi, president of the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council, and a native of Camillus.

“This is part of the fabric that tells the Syracuse story. It’s part of our history and it can be reclaimed. It can be reclaimed with the highest technology products that attack the most basic and simple ideas – clean, non-toxic transportation,” Fedrizzi said during his remarks.

CuseCar will seek a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for the redeveloped building from the U.S. Green Building Council, Fedrizzi said.

To read the story on the CNYBJ website, Click Here.

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.

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.

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.

“For me, it will take time to heal the emotional wounds and gain back the trust I have earned through my hard work and righteous living under God.

Let this be a wake-up call for all of the average working folks who don’t think it can happen to them.”

Executive Suite of Synapse/CuseCar Headquarters

Both CuseCar and Synapse Partners, LLC. are headquartered out of the Historic Bennett Warehouse at 325 East Water Street. The building is a renovated 1800 Erie Canal historic double-ender warehouse. The building features controlled access with hardwood floors and many preserved historic features, including the original brick walls.

The 3rd annual 2009 Downtown Living Tour is designed to showcase downtown Syracuse’s newest examples of urban living. Join the tour Saturday, May 16th as the doors are opened to ten of downtown’s most unique living environments – including upscale condos, new apartments and last year’s winner of the People’s Choice Award. Not to mention the CuseCar headquarters!

Click here for the full article.

Speakers in town for the fifth annual symposium on energy in the 21st century were able to test it out Thursday. All hybrid vehicles are used in this green greeting.

“As national and international visitors come to our community as members of CuseCar. They’re welcomed into the city and brought to their destination and it’s just part of a way of welcoming them into our community and telling them of the advantages of being here,” said CuseCar Co-Founder Vita DeMarchi.

“Shared car services are picking up steam all over the country. I’m here from Washington, D.C. I’m a member of the shared car service there and I use their vehicles a lot. It allows my wife and I to have one car instead of two,” said CuseCar user Geoff Anderson.