Great Northern developer splits with housing partner, wins bid to build Upstate medical complex

Guy Hart Jr. of Hart Lyman Cos. LLC at Lakeshore Country Club, which he also plans to redevelop.

Clay, N.Y. – The local developer aiming to transform the former Great Northern Mall into a huge residential and commercial community has split from his partner, a Rochester group that brought housing expertise to the project.

Guy Hart Jr., managing partner of Hart Lyman Companies, said the firm bought out Conifer Housing’s interests in the project last month after both sides agreed the real estate company lacked experience in such a large mixed-use project, executives from both companies told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.

The former Great Northern Mall

The pairing brought together one of the leading developers of low-income housing in the Northeast with Hart, who’s built dozens of drug stores and is now aiming to build an upscale complex with market-rate housing and half a dozen hotels.

The redeveloper of Great Northern Mall says he plans to present a formal site plan to town officials this summer. Rick Moriarty [email protected]

Conifer officials said that while they wanted to be a part of the vision, the project is on a much larger scale than they are used to.

“We don’t do commercial development, and it’s nothing we’ve ever done,” said Lisa Kaseman, Conifer’s executive vice president of development. “It’s not what we do.”

The loss of a partner puts Hart back on the hunt for a developer who has a successful record of building what he envisions: a sprawling community with market-rate housing, commercial space, hotels, entertainment and a medical hub.

“We never thought we were equipped to do this alone,” Hart said. His company, Hart Lyman, was founded five decades ago and has built more than 50 Walgreens along the East Coast along with large medical office buildings and strip centers. It’s never built a project near the scale of his vision for Great Northern.

“What we can do alone is come up with a plan and an idea that someone can get behind and help us develop,” he said. “That’s the only way this can go forward.”

Hart said he’s still driving toward what would be a unique development in Onondaga County. He said he’s brought a handful of prospective developers, who have experience building similar mega projects, to Syracuse in recent weeks to discuss a deal.

“Everyone we are negotiating with right now has done these types of projects and can add that value needed to make this project a success,” Hart said.

County Executive Ryan McMahon, an advocate for Hart’s project, has met with some of the visitors, too. Both declined to name any of the prospective partners.

“They are close to landing a large-scale partner that can help make their vision a reality,” McMahon said in early July.

A partner is critical to getting the project off the ground, Hart said. That out-of-town partner would help secure the debt and equity financing needed to make the redevelopment work.

“We are just local guys,” Hart said.

The split with Conifer means a slight decrease in proposed housing units at the former mall. A year ago, Hart proposed 1,700 apartments and condos as part of the reimaged complex. Today, he says he’s looking at building 1,500 housing units near the crossroads of Routes 31 and 481.

At the same time, Hart said, a planned medical hub has become more central in the project. Already, he’s won a bid to build a medical center for SUNY Upstate Medical University where part of the mall stands now, a hospital spokesman confirmed.

Conifer still has a small role in the proposal for Great Northern. Instead of building hundreds of market-rate homes, it now plans to build about 80 units on a far corner of the site in Clay.

Hart said he plans to bring a site plan to the Clay town government later this summer, a key step in the project.

And The Widewaters Group in DeWitt is still on board to help Hart Lyman find commercial tenants, officials there said.

The standalone medical component is now a centerpiece of the project, moving onto the middle of the site and taking up part of the space originally dedicated to housing, Hart said.

Builders and medical experts already have a steady track record of adding health care space to the community, from Upstate’s offices in Township 5 in Camillus to Crouse Medical Practice in DeWitt to the North Medical Center in Clay.

Housing is the more urgent need, especially as the community prepares for Micron Technology’s arrival a five-minute drive from Great Northern. The county has estimated the region will need 12,000 more homes to accommodate the expected population growth Micron could bring.

Last year, Hart’s proposal estimated more than 2,300 people would one day live in the new community, which does not yet have a name. That’s nearly as many people who live in the village of Skaneateles. Hart said this week the development would ultimately house nearly that many.

Once equal partners

Hart first announced his vision of a village-like community, with housing, businesses, medical and hotels at the former mall three years ago.

About a year later, he bought the mall for about $9 million. He also announced a new partner in the venture: Conifer Realty, a real estate company that specializes in building housing communities.

At the time, Hart described Conifer and Hart-Lyman Cos., his development company, as equal partners in the redevelopment project. Both had a financial stake in the investment, he said at the time.

By 2024, with Conifer on board, the ideas for Great Northern grew to include as many as 1,700 apartments and condos, half a dozen hotels and a medical hub.

In early fall of 2024, the town approved Hart’s conceptual plan within his planned development district, a new zoning designation for that piece of land. Since then, the town of Clay approved the developer’s conceptual plan for redevelopment.

Now the medical component has moved from the edge of the site to a central spot and become the centerpiece of the development, Hart said.

For its part, Conifer is now planning to submit a separate proposal to Clay officials that would put about 80 housing units on a nine- to 12-acre parcel on the back edge of the site near Verplank Road. That may include some below-market housing, according to Conifer’s Kaseman.

Conifer’s downsized role comes after a turnover in management, including changes in its president, chief financial officer and executive vice president of development. Kaseman said that shakeup didn’t play into the firm’s decisions about Great Northern.

Winning bid at Upstate

Two years ago, Upstate began a search for a developer to build multi-clinic operations including urgent care, outpatient surgery, medical clinics and a pharmacy in either Cicero or Clay. It would be 150,00 to 180,000 square feet and have parking and easy access, according to the bid proposal requirements. It would hopefully be ready by late 2026.

Upstate said Hart Lyman was one of several bidders. The company, based in DeWitt, won the bid last year, Upstate confirmed.

It would be a complex somewhat similar to North Medical, with a surgery center, urgent care and medical offices.

But the medical component would need approval from the state’s Department of Health, a complicated process that can take months. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli would also have to approve the plan, Upstate spokesman Daryl Geddes said.

Still, Hart said he thinks construction on the medical part would begin in 2026.

‘Advanced discussions’

Just last week, Hart said, he brought several potential new partners to Syracuse for “advanced discussions” about the project.

He said he’s looking for a partner with both the expertise and the financial means to make the project a reality.

Hart rejects the idea that he’s in over his head. A former investor has accused him of just that. Jonathan Geller, who provided $2.2 million toward the purchase of Great Northern, sued him earlier this year, claiming that Hart’s attention to the mall project left him unable to make payments of about $226,000 to him.

Hart’s lawyers said in court papers the investor isn’t entitled to those payments, which are related to other projects. Still, the two parties are negotiating a settlement, according to more recent court papers.

So far, Hart says, he’s invested $16 million into the project and has a $4.4 million mortgage.

Hart said there are commercial tenants seriously interested, but no leases have been signed yet.

Hart said he remains confident in finding the right partner who will want to sink its expertise and finances into Clay. The reason? The promise of Micron.

None of the potential partners he’s talking to now would be interested, he said, without the plans for Micron.

“These companies have the wherewithal, the cash – billions of dollars in cash — to help make this happen,” he said.

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