After years of debate, a Syracuse University environmental program will finally have a place to call home.

New York State Gov. George E. Pataki announced Jan. 7 that the Center for Excellence in Environmental Systems will be located in the former Midtown Plaza in downtown Syracuse. The project was formerly located in Link Hall.

The purpose of the location’s change is to produce greater prosperity and economic benefits for the city of Syracuse while establishing a greater environmental program for the university, said Dan Gage, a spokesman for representative James Walsh, R-N.Y.

Plans for the center’s new location have been long-debated between university and state officials. University officials had hoped to build the center at a shovel-ready site on South Campus, where the center would be more cost-effective. The state, however, is funding the center’s construction, which gave Walsh the final say.

Although the site is a distance from the university’s main campus, the center is intended to help further develop the downtown Syracuse area by providing a more advanced technological setting for its urban community.

State Sen. John DeFrancisco has been a longtime advocate of a downtown Syracuse center.

‘This location is vital to the revitalization of the city. We’ve seen progress along the Erie Boulevard corridor with the transformation of the old train station, and it’s important to continue to encourage this type of investment,’ DeFrancisco said.

The center’s location is expected to produce approximately 350 jobs in Syracuse, according to the university’s press release.

‘This center will also foster creative private sector relationships with institutions such as Syracuse University and it will generate the kind of lasting high-tech, high-paying jobs that are necessary to boost our Central New York economy,’ DeFrancisco said.

Besides adding new economic advantages to the city, the center will provide new laboratories that will improve the quality of the environment. The center will also host the New York Indoor Environmental Quality Center Inc.

Federal government officials have long advocated building the center. Walsh secured more than $11 million of federal funding for the center.

Gage believes that the center’s construction combines the university and the city’s business, which greatly benefits all individuals within the Syracuse area.

Walsh believes the Center for Excellence has a visible presence with its downtown location.

‘It’s nice for the center to finally have a home,’ Gage said.

Since some students have an opportunity to work with the program, the new location for the center may inconvenience some students.

Richard Warby, a doctoral student in civil engineering, is comfortable with the center’s current location on the university’s main campus.

‘I wouldn’t want to travel downtown,’ Warby said, ‘It’s very inconvenient.’

Published on January 13, 2004 at 12:00 pm