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Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, shown during a July 2014 news conference to announce a second hotel at the Inner Harbor, sued the developer this week to halt the project.

(Stephen D. Cannerelli )

Updated Dec. 17 to include new comment from COR official

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Mayor Stephanie Miner set out Tuesday to kill the biggest Syracuse development in years - the $324 million Syracuse Inner Harbor project - after the developer went around the city to negotiate lucrative tax breaks from Onondaga County.

The mayor is trying to halt a transformative Inner Harbor project that she herself launched four years ago, after previous mayors tried and failed. The ambitious new waterfront neighborhood would have been her most visible accomplishment as mayor.

Miner's drastic move came after the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency was squeezed out of control over the Inner Harbor deal by a developer with strong ties to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and to Cuomo's allies in Onondaga County leadership.

"What you are seeing here is a clash of philosophy on economic development,'' Miner said in an interview today. She said the lawsuit aims to preserve the city's sovereignty over how the project gets done.

''It's about this: The developer doesn't get to set the terms and conditions of all the things that they want to do, which, in my experience is different from what has been done previous to my administration,'' Miner said.

Miner filed a lawsuit Tuesday that aims to halt the Inner Harbor project by nullifying the city's sale of the land to COR Development Co. She said COR should be required to meet significant local hiring and job-training quotas in return for any discount on property taxes.

COR's deal from the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency is expected to save it an estimated $44.6 million in taxes. Supporters said they had expected a backlash from Miner, who rarely gives up without a fight. But her willingness to erase the whole project, which includes a hotel still under construction, caught them off guard.

"I don't get it,'' said Ryan McMahon, legislature chairman, who appoints the members of the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency. "I thought there might be a lawsuit. I didn't think they were going to" try to take back the land from COR.

Miner said she was sand-bagged by COR officials, who indicated they would not seek tax breaks but later reneged and cut a deal with the county 13 days after the city sold them the Inner Harbor parcels.

When Miner's administration selected COR to develop the Inner Harbor, critics accused the mayor of having too-close ties to the developer. Her husband's son, Terry Mannion, often does legal work for COR and is listed on company documents submitted to the Onondaga County IDA. The company and its principals have donated roughly $30,000 to Miner's election campaigns and political action committee.

But the mayor's relationship with COR soured two years ago, after a politically charged fight over County Executive Joanie Mahoney's proposal to develop a new $500 million stadium for Syracuse University. That ill-fated proposal, for which COR and Mahoney won a $200 million commitment from Cuomo, was abandoned after Miner questioned its viability.

Miner said COR President Steve Aiello met with her in December 2013 to apologize for keeping her in the dark about the stadium idea. During that meeting, Aiello indicated COR did not plan to seek a payment in lieu of taxes at the Inner Harbor, Miner recalled.

Aiello initially declined comment through a spokeswoman. After this article was published, spokeswoman Maggie Truax said Aiello disputes that he and the mayor discussed a PILOT at the December meeting. Truax declined further comment. COR released a statement Tuesday saying the company believes its actions to develop the Inner Harbor have been "proper and appropriate."

Miner's relationships with Cuomo and Mahoney remain strained, if not nonexistent. But COR is a big supporter of both. Donors related to COR Development gave $33,902 to Mahoney's campaign committee over the last eight years, records show. COR partners were the largest Central New York donors to Cuomo's 2014 campaign, giving $287,500.

The state has committed $30 million to the Inner Harbor project, Miner said.

Miner said she learned nearly two years ago from reliable sources that McMahon and County Executive Joanie Mahoney had approached COR to recommend seeking an Inner Harbor tax deal through OCIDA. Mahoney and McMahon have denied that, saying COR approached the county on its own because of a dispute with the city over the tax assessment on Inner Harbor land.

The distrust between city hall and county government apparently precluded any back-room resolution of the conflict that erupted in November when COR applied for the tax breaks.

"It has been clear to me that that would be a futile effort.'' Miner said. "There were discussions between people in my administration and people in the county about this, and the message came back loud and clear: This is happening.''

It's been six weeks since COR Development applied for a payment-in-lieu-of-tax deal from the Onondaga County IDA. During that time, Miner declined public comment. She did not call McMahon, who controls the Industrial Development Agency. McMahon said he hasn't spoken to Miner in months.

Instead, Miner bided her time. She said she was waiting to see whether community activists could persuade OCIDA to require that COR meet specific goals for hiring Syracuse residents and providing on-site job training. If they had, Miner said, she would have supported the OCIDA deal.

But the Onondaga County IDA voted as expected Tuesday to approve a package of tax breaks without any extraordinary community benefit agreement. Miner was ready to pounce. She filed a lawsuit within hours.

"You see the single largest development to come through this community, on public land -- this is the people's land,'' Miner said. "And you have the county come in and say, guess what, you don't have to do any of that (community benefit agreement) with us."

McMahon said the biggest community benefit will be to get the development done.

"The goals of the city are the same goals as the county,'' he said. "I understand there are some territorial issues here, (and) they're upset about that. But the big picture is to get the project done and to get as many people working as possible.''

Miner said there might be a compromise that could settle the lawsuit and get the Inner Harbor project back on track. She declined to offer specifics.

Five years ago, the city of Syracuse and Onondaga County joined their economic development teams in shared office space, to foster cooperation. Aggie Lane, a Syracuse community activist who's been pushing for a local-jobs agreement on the Inner Harbor project, said she couldn't help but wonder whether the staffs talk to each other in the office, given the rift among city and county leaders.

"I think it infects staffs on both sides,'' Lane said. "Everybody starts feeling like they're in a particular camp. That's not good.''

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