With the amount of time he spends in the Marshall Street area, it isn’t surprising to hear Jerry Dellas joke that he lives on the Hill.

In fact, he used to, though he often forgets.

Given the current commercial climate of the Crouse-Marshall business district – especially since the completion of the area’s revitalization project about two months ago – it is difficult to picture the neighborhood in any different light. But prior to Marshall Street’s emergence as Syracuse University’s ‘college town’ street, it was a residential area, home to families and students alike.

For Dellas, the president of the Crouse-Marshall Business Association and part owner of Faegan’s Caf & Pub and Varsity Pizza, his family’s first home was an apartment above a movie theater and auto shop housed in the same building in which his bar currently resides.

‘I never really thought of it that way,’ Dellas said. ‘But that’s the case.’

Today, the area has all but cut ties with its residential roots and has become a strictly commercial district.

But atop the building that accommodates T-Shirt World and Greek Shop, a Syracuse University apparel store, the gray siding and rooftop of a house still remain.

‘You just have to go across the street and into the parking lot to see it,’ said Hugh Gregg, one of the property owners on Marshall Street. ‘You have to look for it, but it’s there.’

Before Marshall Street emerged as a commercial district, Dellas’ grandfather stood at the corner of South Crouse Avenue and Marshall Street, knowing the potential of the area. As a street vendor, he sold candy and popcorn from a pushcart, saving his earnings in hopes of one day purchasing a stake in the area.

In 1926, he opened Varsity Pizza at the head of Marshall Street, 820 S. Crouse Ave. The shop was a house and the Dellas family moved into an upstairs apartment. Immediately, the family had converted the street-level floor into a pizzeria and began selling pies from within the residential community.

As his business expanded, so did the Dellas family’s property, extending to include the buildings on either side of Varsity Pizza and the land behind.

‘He had the foresight to buy as much land up there as he could,’ Dellas said.

That property has been handed down within the Dellas family.

Soon enough, much of the area had been transformed. Most of the main-level floors were converted to buildings with storefronts that could be rented out to tenants. But sticking true to its roots, much of the upper-level floors continued to exist as apartments.

In the late 1940s, Gregg’s father noticed this economic growth and heard about a landowner putting up his building for sale. Working as the business administrator directly under William Tolley, the university’s chancellor at the time, Gregg’s father believed that SU could benefit from purchasing the land and developing it for academic purposes. Tolley appreciated the offer, but respectfully declined.

‘There aren’t too many people who know that story,’ Gregg said of his father’s offer. ‘He felt that the honorable thing to do was offer it to the chancellor.’

When the university declined, Gregg’s father bought it himself. Unlike the Dellas’ flagship building, though, this one was already structured for the growing commercial atmosphere, with concrete and brick sides and windowed storefronts already built in, despite the fact that the building had been around since the late ’20s or early ’30s.

Until 1982, Gregg continued to rent the upstairs apartments to SU students.

Around the same time, Gregg, a general practice attorney with an interest in real estate law, expanded his property to include the buildings adjacent to his, buying the building that now houses Aladdin’s All Natural Eatery and Students Choice Grocery.

Much like Gregg, the Dellas’ chose not to stand pat with their family property. After having graduated from college, Jerry Dellas and his cousin, John, decided to start a bar in the university area and opened Faegan’s for business.

‘We rented from our parents,’ Dellas said, ‘but they didn’t want us to get involved.’

Much to their family’s chagrin, the young Dellas cousins’ bar was a success, allowing the two to purchase some land of their own on the other side of South Crouse – a building that now houses Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar and SEFCU Bank.

In retrospect, Dellas said, the young cousins’ business moves turned out to be in the family’s best interest. When Dellas’ father retired from operating Varsity Pizza four years ago, the young Dellas’ newfound business savvy led them to take over the establishment.

Though Dellas and Gregg were passed down property through their family lineage, the other area property owners took a different route toward earning their shares.

Guy Easter, who heads a special interest group that owns Brooklawn Golf Course in Mattydale, ranks third behind Dellas and Gregg in Crouse-Marshall-area property ownership. Twenty years ago, Easter and a group of fellow investors bought shares in property along the corner of Crouse and Marshall, taking up much of the land there that was not already owned by the Dellas family. Over the years, while his fellow investors have dropped from their investment, Easter has stuck with his game plan – and he’s finally seeing results.

‘It’s just starting to turn around’ Easter said. ‘You can see it in the change in tenants.’

The Jimmy John’s sandwich shop moved into Easter’s property over winter break, replacing the Hershey’s ice cream shop. He also owns the buildings that house Pita Pit, CVS Pharmacy, ZJ’s Pizza & Wings and Harry’s Bar. Soon, Easter said, his remaining vacancy will be filled by a national cyber caf company.

Where many national chains, like McDonald’s, Burger King and Friendly’s, have failed in the area, Easter is confident that his new ones won’t. This time around, Easter said, he has done his fair share of homework on his new tenants. For now, Easter said he has given up on small, local companies because they often lack a solid business plan and financial backing.

‘As you get older, you take that approach as you hope to get more stability,’ Easter said. ‘Twenty years ago, I probably wouldn’t have.’

Still, Easter acknowledged that even the most foolproof plans can often fail in the wrong situation. Many a company, Easter said, has unexpectedly failed or flourished in the area.

Gregg, whose family negotiated leasing space to some of the more prominent mainstays on Marshall Street, like Cosmo’s and Manny’s, has also noticed that no one can predict the success rate of a business. Unlike Easter, his faith lies in the local businesses, not the chains.

‘(National companies) have to do x amount in business,’ Gregg said. ‘If they don’t achieve that, the corporate offices say they need to pack up and move on.’

The building that now holds Aladdin’s restaurant formerly housed a Friendly’s restaurant that fell victim to the situation described by Gregg. For some reason, Gregg said, the numbers weren’t as high as the corporate offices had expected. At the time, Gregg said, only three of the company’s stores in the whole country had failed – all of which were attempts Friendly’s had made at creating a niche on college campuses.

‘The little people have made a go at it and done better,’ Gregg said. ‘Sometimes the families just work harder.’

Both Gregg and Easter are quick to point out that their business is, on some level, a guessing game because neither has attempted to run a business of their own in the area.

Having run a business of his own in the area is exactly why Dellas said he believes his model has been a relatively successful one.

‘We get a pretty good feel for what the market will bear,’ Dellas said. ‘We know what might work and what won’t.’

While Dellas, Gregg and Easter have all taken different paths to owning property, Dellas said each has come to learn what works best for the Crouse-Marshall area.

‘I look forward to my meetings with the other property owners,’ Dellas said. ‘We’ve all been there a long time.’

Even the most recent owner, Antonio Pinti, who purchased the strip mall in the alleyway of South Crouse Ave. that runs parallel to Marshall Street nearly three years ago, has taken a strong interest in doing what is best for the area, Dellas said.

‘He comes to these meetings and he wants to get involved,’ Dellas said.

This pursuit of bettering the area has acted as a common thread among the owners in the Crouse-Marshall business district, and the relationships between each of the personalities are often amicable ones, Dellas said.

While there are minor squabbles from time to time, this sense of friendship and togetherness among owners has brought back the same core value that helped Dellas’ grandfather make the area successful in the first place.

‘If I stop and think about it,’ Dellas said, ‘we’re kind of like a family of owners.’

Published on January 19, 2005 at 12:00 pm