Grateful tenants move into Syracuse’s largest affordable housing project in years: ‘A blessing’

Syracuse, NY — Luz Couvertier feels like she and her newborn son hit the housing lottery. Because they literally did.

Couvertier’s name was the fourth one called when Housing Visions, a not-for-profit organization that develops affordable housing in Syracuse, held a lottery late last year for 128 new apartments in a century-old Syracuse factory famous for the house on its roof. More than 500 people submitted applications to live in the former carriage and car factory.

On April 1, she became one of the first tenants to move into the Moyer Carriage Lofts on Syracuse’s North Side.

“Especially being that everything is newly renovated, like I’m the first person to live in this apartment,” said Couvertier. “It’s nice. It’s really nice. It’s got an island in the kitchen. It’s really nice.”

Moyer Carriage Lofts adds more affordable apartments than any other project to the Syracuse area since the 240-unit Riverknoll at Radisson complex completed its third phase in 2016.

For Couvertier, 29, her new one-bedroom apartment is part of a new start in life.

Couvertier was released from prison in June 2021 after serving 17 months of a two-year sentence for stabbing a woman in a fight at a tattoo parlor. She said she was paroled early because of good behavior and has stayed out of trouble, calling her time in prison a “life-changing experience.”

“I’m on the right path now,” she said. “That made me really change my life.”

Finding an apartment she could afford was a challenge, though. Before moving into her loft at the Moyer building, Couvertier had been living with her mother, sleeping on a couch. She said she began looking for an apartment of her own after her son, L’Oyal, was born in August.

A certified nursing assistant, Couvertier said she has not been able to work because she has to take care of her son, who has medical needs related to being born 13 weeks premature. And rents have gone out of sight, even with a subsidy under the government’s Section 8 voucher program, she said.

“A lot of places want almost $2,000 a month,” she said.

Not at Moyer Carriage Lofts. Rent for her one-bedroom apartment is $896. Her government voucher covers it all, she said.

“I really thank God because this was a blessing,” Couvertier said.

All 128 apartments in the four-building complex at 1714 N. Salina St. are reserved for people with low incomes. Rents range from $569 to $1,024 and include Wi-Fi. They do not include electricity, which ranges from $74 to $91 a month.

As of mid-April, 49 units were occupied. Housing Visions expects the rest to be occupied by July. Seventy percent of the apartments have one bedroom. The rest are two-bedroom units.

Fifty of the apartments are reserved for tenants with mental disabilities, victims of domestic violence and individuals who have aged out of foster care. Catholic Charities provides support services on-site for those tenants.

Most of the apartments have luxury vinyl flooring, though some feature the Moyer factory’s original hardwood floors. They also have kitchen islands, stainless steel appliances and laminate countertops. Many units feature large factory-style windows.

The complex also has a community room with a kitchen for group gatherings. And each floor has a laundry room.

Harvey Moyer built the factory 130 years ago at the corner of North Salina and Wolf streets to make carriages and later automobiles. Ever since, a feature on the roof of one of the buildings has caught the eyes of countless passersby — a two-story structure that looks like a house.

The house, it turns out, contained nothing but the motor for the building’s elevator. The elevator has been replaced with a modern one, but the motor is still in the house on the roof. The exterior of the house has been restored as part of the building’s redevelopment, so it now looks exactly like it did more than a century ago.

Moyer’s factory shut down in 1915. The complex later housed the Porter-Cable Machine Co. and then Penfield Manufacturing Co., a maker of mattresses and bedroom furniture. Penfield closed in 2006, and the buildings sat mostly vacant until Housing Visions teamed up with developers Steve Case and Ryan Benz last year to redevelop them at a cost of $55.4 million.

In addition to apartments, the site includes 3,500 square feet of storefronts along Wolf Street. No commercial tenants have been announced yet for the storefront spaces.

Housing Visions President and CEO Ben Lockwood said he’s hoping the building’s redevelopment as an affordable residential complex encourages other developers to do the same with other vacant buildings in the Washington Square area.

“We’re really pleased to bring this back,” he said. “Housing is a super important part of our mission.”

Rick Moriarty covers business news and consumer issues. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact him anytime: E-mail | X | Facebook | 315-470-3148

,