Chimes rendering.JPG

Dakota Partners, of Waltham, Mass., included this rendering of the Chimes Building in Syracuse in a posting on its website announcing that it is in the process of buying the iconic downtown Syracuse office building.

(Dakota Partners)

Syracuse, N.Y. — A Massachusetts company says it is in the process of buying the iconic Chimes Building in downtown Syracuse and will complete the transformation of its upper floors from office space to apartments.

A notice posted on the website of Dakota Partners, a real estate developer based in the Boston suburb of Waltham, said the company's purchase of the 12-story Art Deco building at 500 S. Salina St. would be its first venture outside of New England.

"Once the acquisition and development financing is complete, we will commence on a major rehabilitation of the building, including retrofitting the elevators, improving the lobby and storefronts on the ground floor, replacing all windows, and converting upper floor office space into apartments," the company said.

Chimes Building 17 Gallery: Chimes Building

When completed, the project will consist of 124 one, two and three-bedroom apartments and 7,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, the company said.

It said it expected strong demand for the apartments from students at Upstate Medical University and Syracuse University graduate students.

Dakota Partners did not return phone calls from syracuse.com seeking comment, and it took the notice off its website Thursday morning.

David Shah, managing partner for the current owner of the building, Long Island-based UA Properties LLC, said Wednesday that his company is negotiating a sale to Dakota Partners but that no deal has been reached. He said the posting was premature and that he would ask the company to take it down.

In the meantime, UA Properties is continuing its own transformation of office space on the building's upper floors to apartments, he said. Floors 4,5 and 6 have been transformed, creating a total of 33 apartments, and another 14 apartments will be ready by June, making for a total of 47, he said.

The building opened at the southwest corner of South Salina and West Onondaga streets in 1929, instantly becoming one of Syracuse's most visible office buildings. It was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon architects, the same New York City firm that designed the Empire State Building two years later.

It got its name from electronic chimes on its roof that rang every 15 minutes and played a two- to three-minute melody every hour. The chimes stopped working after World War II and are no longer part of the building, but the name stuck.

UA Properties bought the building in 2009 for $1 million and renamed it UA Towers, though it is still better known as the Chimes Building. With the downtown office market weak, the company began converting its office space to apartments three years ago. Shah said the apartments have been attracting young professionals who work downtown and on University Hill.

Founded in 2006 from the merger of two other development companies, Dakota Partners has acquired or completed more than 100 residential projects, including garden-style affordable housing developments in Massachusetts and Connecticut, the conversion of an historic New Hampshire mill into loft-style apartments, and the adaptive reuse of historic urban buildings in Hartford and Waterbury, Conn., according to the company's website.

Below is a screenshot of the Chimes Building announcement by Dakota Partners before the posting was taken down:

Dakota Partners Chimes Building Announcement

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