ckh,
I too wish Syracuse had such a devoted citizen/developer. Maybe there is someone like that up there, and it's funding issues. I know funding has not been easy over the last few years,but that may be changing now.
Syracuse has plenty of great old buildings that would be perfect for renovation. I did run across this possible project for the old Hotel Syracuse building (though there were many previous plans):
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.s..._syracuse.html