Auburn shooting, city seizing Schine theater, Cayuga County crime stories

After years of inactivity by the owner of the Auburn Schine Theater, the city is moving to take possession of the historic downtown property.

A notice of certification of abandonment has been posted in the doors of the 16 South St. theater by the city’s code enforcement office. As of July 24, it says, the office has determined that the theater is legally abandoned. The reason for that determination was not immediately made available to The Citizen.

With the certification, the city will move to take possession of the Schine in Cayuga County Supreme Court, the notice continues. No further information is included.

The theater has been owned by Schines Theater LLC since December 2018. The LLC is closely linked with East Syracuse developer Bryan Bowers and his firm, Bowers Development.

Bowers did not respond to a request for comment by The Citizen.

Around the same time the LLC bought the 1938 art deco theater for $15,000 from previous owner the Cayuga County Arts Council, Bowers oversaw the remediation of its asbestos and other hazardous materials. The work was supported by $800,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds allocated by the city.

However, there has been little apparent progress on the Schine since then. Bowers appeared in June 2022 before Auburn City Council, saying he hoped to reopen the theater by its 85th anniversary in September 2023. He also said he would be back before City Council that fall — but city officials told The Citizen their communication with him since then has been scarce.

That lack of communication is one reason the city issued the certification of abandonment, Auburn Mayor Jimmy Giannettino told The Citizen on Tuesday.

“We did not take this decision lightly, but felt we had no choice,” he said.

“My hope is that the developer will come to the table with a viable path forward because that is what’s best for the community and for the Schine theater.”

Giannettino added that he told Bowers shortly after the LLC purchased the Schine, a rehabilitation project dating back to 1998, that it’s “an emotional and personal project for the people of Auburn.”

“You’ve got to communicate with them,” Giannettino said. “And he just hasn’t lived up to that.”

Another sign of the LLC’s lack of communication with the city has been its failure to pay taxes on time. The Schine owner has fallen behind a few times, Auburn Treasurer Robert Gauthier told The Citizen. In May, the LLC owed $19,208.01 after making its last payment in January 2022 for $9,485.30.

Bowers, who has estimated the theater’s rehabilitation would cost about $6 million, is in line to receive $2.2 million in state grants for the project: $1.2 million from the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council and a $1 million Restore New York grant awarded to the city ​​on the Schine’s behalf. Despite both grants being announced more than five years ago, Empire State Development confirmed to The Citizen in May that the theater remains eligible to receive them. They are reimbursement grants, so they will not be received until the money has been spent.

A possible explanation for Bowers’ lack of progress on the Schine is the amount of other projects he’s overseeing. In Utica, he’s been involved in a years-long eminent domain case with Oneida County. He has also been issued tickets by that city’s code enforcement office due to similar inactivity at several historic properties he has purchased there over the last decade.

Bowers recently became attached to a project in Syracuse as well, one that will demolish the 120-year-old warehouse at 400 Erie Blvd. W. to make way for apartments.

Gallery: The Auburn Schine Theater turns 85