Former Skyline Apartments near completion, faces April 30 deadline for reopening
New photos showed a new lobby and refurbished apartments at Skyline, but some units still needed flooring and plumbing before the April 30 deadline.
The former Skyline Apartments showed fresh signs of life on James Street, but the 12-story, 352-unit building still had to clear a hard April 30 deadline before anyone could move back into 753 James St. The latest photos from Clear Investment Group showed a new lobby and updated apartments, yet the company said some units still needed flooring and plumbing work before the high-rise could reopen.
That deadline carried real weight because Skyline, soon to be renamed The Metropolitan, had spent years as one of Syracuse’s most troubled properties. The building was long associated with crime, drug activity, flooding, fires, vermin and burst pipes, and the 2021 murder of 93-year-old Connie Tuori turned the site into a symbol of how far the property had fallen. Victoria Afet was later sentenced to 29 years to life in prison for Tuori’s murder.
Clear Investment Group took over management in 2023, but the company and the city spent much of 2024 and 2025 arguing over whether meaningful work was happening. In late October 2024, Syracuse City Code Enforcement said it saw no completed work at the property. Clear said setbacks were driven by vandalism and break-ins, and later said it had inherited major problems from the prior owner, Green National.
The city escalated in April 2025, asking State Supreme Court to replace Clear with a receiver for the vacant building. City filings sought more than $355,000 in fines and a $2 million deposit to cover repairs and maintenance, while alleging Clear had failed to invest even de minimis capital and let the building slip further into disrepair. A separate 2023 wrongful-death settlement with Tuori’s family remained confidential.
A court-approved agreement reached in September 2025 changed the path forward. It required Clear to repair, inspect and ready the building for occupancy by April 30, 2026, with work that included asbestos remediation and repairs tied to a burst standpipe in the fire-protection system. Clear also agreed to weekly city code inspections. If the company complied, it could seek partial certification for some portions of the building before final completion. If it defaulted, the city could re-file its lawsuit and again ask for a receiver.
Clear has said it wanted to reopen the apartments floor by floor, rather than all at once, with reported rents in the rebuilt building targeted around $800 to $1,500. But after years of vacancies, a 2024 fire, a March 2025 water-leak incident and the city’s continued oversight, the central question remained whether the building was becoming safe and livable again, or whether the appearance of progress was still outpacing the facts.
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