The Marshall Construction Hurts Marshall Street Businesses

By Anna Azallion  – Syracuse, N.Y. (CitrusTV) – Construction on The Marshall, a new apartment complex located right off of Syracuse University’s campus, is still ongoing. It continues to affect one of The Marshall’s closest neighbors, Orange Crate Brewing Company.

Orange Crate, a bar known to many SU students by its former name, Lucy’s, used to be located in the space now occupied by The Marshall. After being given 6 months notice of The Marshall’s intention to rebuild that space, the bar relocated next door. The general manager of Orange Crate, Jason Murature, said the last few months have been rough.

“Over the summer construction was kind of a nightmare during the summertime with traffic and people being able to get to the restaurant you know the roads were closed,” he said.

Roads are back open and Murature says he’s already seen an increase in traffic, but a bartender at Orange Crate said other problems, like a lack of parking have persisted.

“Every time I drive down here, there’s tons of cars that are in front of me and everyone’s like got their signal on, everyone’s in front of me and it’s like you don’t want to be mad because everyone’s trying to park,” Christian Jackson said.

Jackson said there used to be a parking lot Orange Crate employees used, but now they find street parking wherever they can. She’s even had to park on Walnut Ave. by many of the Greek houses at SU, which is about a ten-minute walk from Orange Crate.

Despite the parking, other factors affecting business are improving.

“It kinda started out rough with the construction, but now that it’s getting closer to completion, the kids are getting happier and people are coming back, and the traffic will obviously benefit us greatly,” Murature said.

A quick walk down Marshall St. and other streets nearby will show the numerous amount of business and student housing options, but a lack of parking. Jackson doesn’t feel this is right.

“Now they’re building all this student housing which when it’s done will be amazing, but I feel that they should come up with some sort of parking situation, too,” She said.

The Marshall does not currently offer parking for its residents. One current resident of The Marshall said she isn’t sure where she’s going to park after she moves in to her apartment at The Marshall on September 29th. Other residents have purchased space in a lot on East Adams St. or are parking at their sorority houses.

Citrus TV reached out to The Marshall about the parking situation and no one was available for comment.