Onondaga County has awarded a $1 million contract to start prepping vacant land at Syracuse’s Inner Harbor for a new aquarium.
W.D. Malone Trucking and Excavating won the contract. The work started last week, Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said.
The county is building an $85 million aquarium on vacant land along Solar Street.
The first contract includes shoreline stabilization, precompression of soils and removal of invasive plants.
The final design is expected to be released by the end of the year. The county has not yet advertised bids for construction.
The county paid Cor development $1.7 million for the property. It was part of 28 acres the city transferred to Cor in 2012. Instead of asking for payment, the city allowed Cor to spend the money on the clean up of waste left behind by generations of industrial use.
The site was swampland filled in over time and used by the salt industry in the 1800s. Large petroleum storage facilities were built in the early 1900s and used through the 1990s. Because of this contamination, the county intends to build the aquarium above ground.
Cor built a hotel and a mixed-use building for apartments and retail, but failed to develop the remaining land.
McMahon pushed funding for the aquarium through a reluctant legislature. Legislators approved the land purchase in June by a vote of 9-8.
The project will be paid for with surplus cash the county built up during the pandemic.
It has been met with controversy by elected officials and residents, who believe the money would be better spent on housing, health and social services.
The aquarium has also become a divisive campaign issue as McMahon seeks re-election to a second term. McMahon argues that tourism boosts the economy and generates sales taxes, which pay for basic government services.
Challenger Bill Kinne, a Democrat in the county legislature, has said he would cancel the project if he is elected Tuesday.
McMahon said the aquarium is moving forward, despite the campaign…
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