A year after a $7 million funding shortfall left the Children Rising Center stuck in the mud, city officials and housing advocates want to revive the project.
Despite recent commitments from Mayor Sharon Owens to jolt the project back to life, a nonprofit leader in charge of the redevelopment says the lost year of progress has set the project back.
The Children Rising Center is part of the billion-dollar, multi-phased redevelopment of the East Adams neighborhood situated around the Interstate-81 viaduct. The project was conceptualized in 2021 as a signature element of the $1 billion plan to redevelop the area into a mixed-income neighborhood.
The center was meant to address the lack of reliable childcare options in the area, as well as prepare young children for school by focusing on early education, and expand recreation programming for nearby residents.
Its development halted last February, following spats between the Syracuse Housing Authority — one of the key parties involved in the project — city officials, and leaders of nonprofits tasked with a portion of the redevelopment of East Adams. Those stakeholders sparred over missed deadlines and misinformation.
The conflict led to a critical loss of funding, effectively shelving the project. Organizations like Blueprint 15, a nonprofit that undertook the redevelopment of the Children Rising Center project as well as works with public housing residents in the East Adams neighborhood, were left at a loss.
Sarah Walton LaFave, the executive director of Blueprint 15, took the reins of the organization at a critical time last year when stakeholders wondered if the project would ever come to fruition.
The center, housing experts have said, was key to the redevelopment project that would see SHA and McCormack Baron Salazar, a Missouri-based developer, redevelop 672 apartments in Pioneer Homes and McKinney Manor while building an additional 732 apartment units. SHA hopes to house current residents while drawing in new residents who pay market-rate rents.
“When we had to push pause on the project, we lost some momentum, and we are in a place where we need to reevaluate project costs and project funding, and that’s what I’m in the process of doing right now,” Walton LaFave said.
For Walton LaFave, Owens provided a glimmer of hope in defrosting the project during her 2026 State of the City address at Nottingham High School on Jan. 29.
“As part of the East Adams Neighborhood Transformation project, my administration will work to reinvigorate the development of the Children Rising Center,” Owens said. “My staff will work tirelessly to identify development and investment partners to make this dream a reality.”
Despite the renewed hope, SHA leadership — one of the culprits Owens and other Blueprint 15 officials blamed last year for the failure to secure funding for the project — remains unchanged.
Last year, Blueprint 15 and the Allyn Family Foundation pointed the finger at SHA for failing to produce a relocation plan in time to apply for $7 million in the U.S. Department of Treasury’s New Market Tax Credit program while redeveloping public housing.
Former Allyn Family Foundation Executive Director Meg O’Connell had then said that the project had secured $25 million in funding from city, state and federal entities. The remaining tax credits were imperative to close the project, O’Connell had said at the time.
SHA, however, denied missing any deadlines. Instead SHA Executive Director William Simmons blamed Blueprint 15 for changing their plans.
In a sharp contrast to her predecessor, former Mayor Ben Walsh who refrained from calling for SHA Executive Director William Simmons’ ousting, Owens has remained steadfast in her calls for Simmons’ removal. Following her historic victory in the mayoral elections, Owens — who served as the board president of Blueprint 15 until last December — underscored a “need for shift.”
In a wide-ranging sitdown interview with Central Current on Jan. 15, Mayor Owens emphasized the need for a transition in leadership at the housing authority.
“It’s important for us to transition so that we can continue to move the project,” Owens said. “It has been clear that under the current leadership, that has not happened.”
The Children Rising Center is considered a critical centerpiece of the East Adams neighborhood redevelopment project as it would address needs in the community, especially child care options and the opportunity to prepare young kids for school by focusing on early learning.
SHA emphasized the importance of the project in their Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grant application reviewed by Central Current. SHA applied for and won the first-ever Choice grant worth $50 million awarded in the state by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to fund their neighborhood redevelopment project and convert East Adams into a mixed-income neighborhood.
In their application, SHA cited the school district’s 2023-24 proxy academic data that showed only 38% of the early learners demonstrating age-appropriate development. The Children Rising Center would offer early learning slots to bring children up to speed, alongside afterschool and summer programs, and a play arena for children and parents with early learning opportunities.
A recent history of the Children Rising Center
- Since December 2021, Blueprint 15 began developing plans for the CRC
- On Sept. 26, 2024, SHA shared the project and confirmed timeline at a kickoff meeting with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at Toomey Abbott Tower
- On April 1, 2025, construction on the project was supposed to commence.
- On Jan. 28, 2025, at the Blueprint 15 board meeting, commissioners voted against moving forward with the project.
- On Feb. 3, 2025, former Blueprint 15 Executive Director Raquan Pride-Green issued a statement saying that the project will be stalled.
- On Feb. 7, 2025, former Executive Director at the Allyn Family Foundation Meg O’Connell issued a statement declaring that they “will no longer provide the expertise, leadership, and financial support to the development of the Children Rising Center on its current path.”
- On Feb. 20, 2025, former Mayor Ben Walsh joined the SHA board meeting to declare no confidence in Simmons’ leadership.
- On March 17, 2025, the Syracuse Common Council voted unanimously for a land swap deal where Latimer Terrace in the Southside would be exchanged for the Eastwood Heights property. Following a $500,000 payment from SHA to the city to make up for the difference in property values, the newly acquired land along Latimer Terrace could eventually be home to the Children Rising Center, providing a roadmap towards restarting the project.
Reevaluating the feasibility of building the Children Rising Center is an ongoing challenge for Blueprint 15, Walton LaFave said. She told Central Current that she is looking forward to partnering with the city to get the project back on track.
“It is such a valuable, valuable space,” Walton LaFave said.
Walton LaFave was appointed by Walsh in 2023 to lead the East Adams neighborhood redevelopment, as part of the city’s Department of Neighborhood and Business Development. She served as the city’s liaison with those involved in the project.
Walton LaFave succeeded Raquan Pride-Green as the interim executive director in August before transitioning into a full-time role in January 2026.
During her time at the city, Walton LaFave grew increasingly familiar with the staff and mission at Blueprint 15, and wanted to continue to assist the team with securing additional funding to continue their work through the fall. During her leadership, she will focus on analyzing if the project can be completed by Blueprint 15 independently or if they would benefit from a collaboration, she said.
“We have to make sure it’s feasible for the Blueprint 15 team to undertake, and if not the Blueprint 15 team itself, perhaps there is another team that could partner or collaborate, or kind of take on more of a primary role,” Walton LaFave said. “I’m really open to having those conversations… [I] just feel a lot more confident navigating the processes, but [I am] also willing to have conversations to keep momentum up.”
Once Blueprint 15 has more clarity, Walton LaFave said that she wants to be transparent about the progress with the projects in the coming months.
“My hope is that no matter when it happens, and I believe it will happen, but no matter when it happens,… it will be very clear the path that needs to happen to get to the outcome,” she said.
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