McMahon announces $617,000 Main Street boost for 13 Camillus businesses

Thirteen Camillus properties are set for new façades, brighter lighting, roof work and accessibility upgrades under a $617,685 Main Street package that county officials say will change the look and feel of the village’s commercial corridor.

Onondaga County said the award includes a $463,264 county investment matched by $154,421 from property owners. The project list spans Camillus Station, Green Gate Inn, Methodist Church, RBK Development, TDK Engineering, Mission Hope Church, East of Nowhere, Olympus, Allan Law Office, Krabby Kirk Saloon, My Town Realty, The Camillus Grill and the Village Smoke Shop.

For Main Street, that means more than cosmetic touch-ups. The funding is aimed at the kind of visible fixes that shape whether people linger, shop and return: cleaner building fronts, better lighting after dark, easier entryways and repairs that can help older structures look occupied and cared for rather than worn down. In a village business district, those changes are what customers actually see from the sidewalk.

County Executive J. Ryan McMahon, II said the effort works because public dollars pull in additional private spending. “Baldwinsville and Camillus are proving what happens when public investment meets local ambition. Every dollar we put into our Main Streets generates real economic momentum,” McMahon said.

The Camillus award follows a stretch of steady reinvestment in the village. Between 2021 and 2025, Camillus completed 28 Main Street projects backed by $1.44 million in county funding and $480,278 in matching private investment, for more than $1.9 million in local economic and streetscape improvements. Taken together, the numbers suggest the latest round is less a one-off grant than another step in a multi-year rebuilding effort along the village’s core.

Countywide, Onondaga County said the Main Street Program has leveraged $22.5 million in county funds and nearly $16 million in private investment since 2019, creating more than $38.49 million in business district revitalization. The Camillus and Baldwinsville awards announced the same day show how the county is using the program to reinforce village centers rather than spreading money thinly across the county.

For Camillus, $617,685 is enough to make the corridor look sharper and more welcoming at a dozen-plus addresses. It is not a wholesale remake of Main Street, but it is enough to produce a visible before-and-after on the blocks where village life still passes every day.