Following eight years of abandonment, In October 2006 the school building was auctioned for
US$2.2 million to Syracuse Resort Development (SRD), a group of investors on Long Island, which intended to make it a vacation resort. But the state
Empire State Development Corporation soon expressed worry that the purchase of the property was fraudulent. One of the investors,
Moussa Yeroushalmi, had been sued by the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2004 over allegations that he defrauded investors. The worries soon came true. SRD paid no taxes on the property and continuously contested the 585,000 square-foot building's tax assessment. Proposals by SRD, such as a resort for disabled people and a "green" business park, never materialized. Syracuse Resort, an affiliate of SRD and a minority owner of the former developmental center, filed for bankruptcy in December 2010. SRD, which owned 92.5% of the property, followed suit in April 2011. Both actions were filed to prevent the city from seizing the property for back taxes. The property was sold for $2.1 million in a bankruptcy auction to a "Syracuse Center LLC" in 2013. It has not paid any property taxes since January 2016, according to the city Department of Finance. This company was once thought to be a portion of a Jewish trade school based in California, but is owned by a company that
Kazakhstan officials allege to be a shell corporation formed to hide tens of millions of dollars in stolen money according to local media syracuse.com. ==References==