Oswego razes houses to make way for commercial development

Two houses on Van Buren Street in Oswego that the village recently bought have been razed to make way for commercial development

At their July 18 meeting, village trustees unanimously voted to buy the houses at 6 and 12 W. Van Buren St. for $525,000 from Fitzpatrick Properties LLC. The funds to buy the houses came from the village’s tax increment financing fund.

Once a municipality creates a TIF district, its property assessment is frozen and new or increased taxes generated by improvements are used to pay for improvements or other development incentives.

“For the first time, at least in anybody’s memory, the properties at 6 and 12 W. Van Buren went for sale at the same time,” Oswego Village Administrator Dan Di Santo had said in talking about the village’s purchase of the two houses. “They’re residential properties that are actually zoned commercial and are on the outskirts of our downtown.”

The two properties are just west of Main Street.

“Once purchased and acquired by the village, we’ll be able to market the lots to developers for commercial and mixed-use development consistent with the village’s Comprehensive Plan and zoning,” Di Santo said.

The Reserve at Hudson Crossing apartment and retail building in downtown Oswego was built on the former Alexander Lumber property, which the village had bought and sold to the Geneva-based Shodeen Group.