Minoa mayor discusses Nest Apartments, school bus garage, Penske site sale

A 90-unit apartment complex on a vacant, wooded seven-acre parcel off Esther Street and McKinley Street could become one of the biggest new residential additions in Minoa, but Mayor William Brazill is framing it as an early-stage proposal that still has to work through the village’s public-review process.

The project, called The Nest Apartments, would rise as four three-story buildings in the southern part of the village and is being developed by Sal ZaVaglia of Venterra LLC. That kind of density matters in a village where new housing has been hard to add, even as Onondaga County’s June 2024 Housing Needs Assessment pressed local governments to confront supply shortages. The county study drew on listening sessions that involved more than 100 municipal, planning and zoning board members across Onondaga County, a sign that the pressure for more homes is not confined to Minoa.

The apartment plan also lands in a neighborhood already shaped by school traffic and public investment. East Syracuse-Minoa Central School District voters overwhelmingly approved a $19.1 million building improvement plan on Jan. 12, 2023, and the district says that work continues to focus on upgrades and safety features at the High School and Transportation Center. Any increase in households near Esther and McKinley streets would add to the daily movement already tied to school operations, buses and commuter traffic.

At the same time, another Minoa property is moving toward a new chapter. Penske Truck Leasing’s site at 402 Central Avenue North is listed for sale as a 26,000-square-foot industrial building with nine grade-level doors, a wash bay, trench floor drains and an eight-acre fenced yard. The asking price is $2.9 million, and the listing says the property sits about 2.5 miles from I-481 and I-90 via Kirkville Road. A Penske Used Trucks page still shows a Minoa presence in used truck inventory, but the sale listing points to a possible shift in how the site fits into the village’s industrial footprint.

Taken together, the apartment proposal, the school district’s transportation investments and the Penske listing show how much of Minoa’s next phase is being decided parcel by parcel. Brazill’s message is that the village wants those decisions to stay transparent and open to public input before any of them move forward.