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On Campus

SU purchases former Fiji house for $3.14 million

Sarah Lee | Daily Orange File Photo

The house, which was last occupied by Fiji in 2019, borders several cleared lots already owned by the university along the 700 block of Ostrom Avenue.

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Syracuse University purchased the house located at 727 Comstock Ave. for $3.14 million on Monday, a university spokesperson confirmed.

The Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, commonly known as Fiji, previously occupied the house, which sits behind the Center for Science and Technology and is currently situated between the houses of the Sigma Phi Epsilon and Sigma Chi fraternities.

The spokesperson said the university currently has no plans for the property, but that it would be “a good opportunity for our campus framework’s future.”

Fiji moved into the house ahead of the fall 2013 semester after the Sigma Alpha Mu, or Sammy, fraternity’s lease was not renewed. Zeta Psi, which left SU’s campus in 2007, owned the property during both Sammy and Fiji’s leases.



In 2019, Fiji moved into the house on 1105 Harrison St., which the Theta Tau fraternity previously occupied.

The newly acquired property is behind others SU already owns along the 700 block of Ostrom Avenue, which the university cleared to be empty lots in 2019. At a Sept. 21 University Senate meeting, Chancellor Kent Syverud confirmed that the university plans to construct student housing on the parcel amid local residents’ concerns regarding SU’s expansion plans.

“We have been in a process of evaluating what to build related to student housing on empty lots on Ostrom,” Syverud said at the meeting. “That process is going to take into account how we maintain a neighborhood near the campus, where faculty and staff want to live. I think the process is starting, but I wouldn’t expect to see any bulldozers very soon on Ostrom Ave.”

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CORRECTION: In a previous version of this story, some of Syracuse University’s property ownership was misstated. The Daily Orange regrets this error.





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