Real Estate and Property Development

Home HeadQuarters’ Opportunity Headquarters crews continued to push through challenges in the residential construction industry to rehab almost 20 formerly vacant properties and build 15 new homes and rental units, most as part of Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh’s Resurgent Neighborhood Initiative. Supply chain issues from the on-going pandemic severely impacted construction costs at the start of the year adding 15-30% to already constrained budgets. While sub-contractor and skilled crew shortages along with extended review times and unpredictable construction material availability pushed schedules farther out than planned, Opportunity Headquarters and Real Estate and Property Development staff remained focused and nimble.

Demand for Home HeadQuarters single-family new construction continued unabated and even increased as inventory shortages hit the upstate housing market. HHQ homes sold before being finished with interested home buyers calling at the first sign of construction activity. HHQ’s new homes on Syracuse’s Southside saw new first-time buyers from the neighborhood and public housing. Essentially creating a new housing market, HHQ drove purchase financing to exceed traditional geographic value constraints while putting together a fund to cover historically low appraisals. The Syracuse Equity Fund, capitalized in part by Enterprise Community Partners, provides a loan loss reserve to protect new first-time homebuyers from detrimental home appraisals and resulting credit impact.

Stabilizing One of Syracuse’s Largest Affordable Rental Providers – SMNC

Home HeadQuarter’s Real Estate and Property Management team was consumed most of the year with the near collapse of non-profit rental housing provider Syracuse Model Neighborhood Corporation. With more than 225 units in 85 properties mostly located on Syracuse’s Southside, the almost 50-year-old organization faced financial insolvency and overwhelming systems, codes and other building failures. Working to stabilize SMNC and its properties this past year, HHQ has provided emergency financing, intensive forensic accounting services and created a strong maintenance crew to address and assess immediate life and safety property issues and to place the properties on the city’s rental registry and accompanying code inspection schedules. Going forward, HHQ is working with the City of Syracuse and  local foundation partners: Allyn Family Foundation, CNY Community Foundation, Gifford Foundation, Reisman Foundation and the Jon Ben Snow Foundation to provide needed funding to address the overwhelming repair needs for the properties that can be saved.