Local Family Helps Breathe Life into Long Vacant Former Sumner Hunt Building on Syracuse’s Southside with Revival of Neighborhood Coffee House
SYRACUSE, NY – Reggie Pickard figures that he walked or drove by what he calls “a gem of a building” at 1555 S. Salina Street on Syracuse’s Southside at least once a day since local nonprofit housing developer Home HeadQuarters took over the struggling property. When Home HeadQuarters’ request for proposals went out late last year seeking a local business enterprise to occupy the first level, Reggie was the first to submit and ultimately win the process with his vision for a true neighborhood coffee house—ONAJAVA. That vision is being realized at a Community Open House and kickoff event this Friday, August 2, 2024, at 12noon at 1555 S. Salina Street on the corners of E. Kennedy and S. Salina Streets. The event features remarks from Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens, ONAJAVA owner Reggie Pickard, Home HeadQuarters Founder and CEO Kerry Quaglia and other project and community stakeholders followed by a coffee toast, music, food sampling and more.
The ONAJAVA Coffee House project, with Home HeadQuarters developing the 1600 sq. ft mixed-use historic property that includes two 3-bedroom affordable apartments on the second level, was made possible with support from the City of Syracuse, NYS Empire State Development and the Allyn Family Foundation. The property sits at the entryway to a neighborhood long targeted by Home HeadQuarters with more than $60.4 million in loans and grants provided to families and 117 properties constructed or redeveloped. Home HeadQuarters is planning to build an additional 21 new single-family homes in this targeted neighborhood this year as part of the NYS Affordable Homeownership Opportunity Program (AHOP) and Mayor Ben Walsh’s Resurgent Neighborhoods Initiative (RNI).
Reggie Pickard lives within blocks of the ONAJAVA site and has lived in Syracuse all his life. He grew up around coffee, food service and entertainment; his mom owned a restaurant on Salina Street in the early 90s, before that his family managed entertainment at the Pan American Village at the NYS Fair and he ran the original ONAJAVA Soul Café on the city’s Southwest side 20 years ago. Reggie believes the Southside deserves a space where people can meet, listen to music or poetry, look at art and have a sense of community. “I want ONAJAVA to be a place where people can be themselves comfortably, safely and inspirationally.”
ONAJAVA will be open from noon to 8pm on Friday, August 2, 2024, and from 8am-8pm on Saturday, August 3, 2024, and then will close for a week for staff training. The coffee house is slated to open officially for breakfast and lunch, and of course, coffee, beginning Monday, August 12, 2024. Artists, poets, photographers and musicians interested in highlighting their specialty are encouraged to reach out to Reggie on Instagram at @onajava413.