It's hard to miss all the construction along James Street in Eastwood. And at the busiest intersection of the neighborhood, a long awaited project is now in its final stages. YNN's Erin Clarke tells us all about the changes happening in that community.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Eastwood residents are excited.

"I hear it over and over again. Eastwood looks very blighted, looks very poor because of that intersection. Now they can't say that. It's going to be revived," said Stephen Skinner, Tomorrow's Neighborhoods Today Business Committee Chair.

The corner of James Street and Midler Avenue, where the old Steak and Sundae building sits, will be transformed.

"The ice cream shop, the hair salon, the Extreme Pizza and all the retail that is across the street will move over here," said Nader Maroun, 5th District Syracuse Common Councilor.

Those businesses will enjoy more space, 11,000 square feet to be exact, and there will also be room for other entrepreneurs to move in. In the spots they abandon, a Kinney Drug store will be built. This project here at the old Steak and Sundae building is just one of many along James Street. Common Councilors say what's happening is like a domino effect.

"On James and Rigi, an apartment building that is under renovation currently. At the further end of the James Street, the Sacred Melody shop is being rehabilitated, and that plaza with some new parking lots, and at the other end, Pomco, that construction," said Maroun.

Councilor Maroun thinks the Palace Theater renovation years back started the building boom.
Now he is committed to helping the neighborhood become a place that its residents can be proud of.

"It's so much better than walking by and seeing boarded up and broken windows," said Skinner.

Billboards of blight are finally coming down to reveal a better neighborhood. The businesses on the southwest corner of James and Midler streets are expected to move into the old Steak and Sundae building by late July or early August.