Syracuse, N.Y. – What started with $1 homes has now become a $200 million real estate empire spanning 17 states.
Brothers Greg and Colin Cleghorn, once known as some of Syracuse’s biggest landlords, have reinvented themselves as two of New York’s most aggressive buyers of industrial properties.
In June 2025, the pair’s company, IronHorn Enterprises, bought the Midstate Athletic Community Center’s dual ice rinks in Cicero for $2.3 million.
They’re now leasing the facility back to the center after footing the bill for a new $350,000 chiller.
Not bad for two kids who once mucked cow stalls for $4 an hour.
From $1 Homes to Hundreds of Apartments
The Cleghorns grew up on Syracuse’s South Side before moving to a rural community outside the city. Greg, now 35, remembers milking cows before dawn and swearing he’d never settle for a job that demanded that much work for so little pay.
Their entrepreneurial streak started young: Greg sold knives door-to-door while Colin, now 33, flipped cars with a friend. By high school, Greg had already bought a fire-damaged house with two friends, fixed it up, and started collecting rent. That taste of “passive income” convinced the brothers that real estate was their future.
By 2014, they had formed Cleghorn Properties LLC, buying run-down houses—some for as little as $1—fixing them, and renting them out. Over the next six years, they scooped up 200 apartments across 120 properties, most through foreclosure auctions.
A Pivot to Warehouses and Distribution Centers
The brothers’ model worked well, but by 2019, they saw bigger opportunities. Colin, working as a commercial real estate agent, noticed surging demand for warehouses and distribution centers as e-commerce exploded.
“These guys were making the most money,” Colin said. “They buy these big box buildings, lease them out, and when a tenant leaves, they just put in another one.”
Industrial real estate also came with fewer headaches. No clogged toilets, no middle-of-the-night calls from tenants. Instead, “big boy tenants” signed five- to 10-year leases and handled their own maintenance.
So the Cleghorns pivoted. They sold off their residential portfolio for $15 million and started buying warehouses. Their first purchase was a vacant building in Cicero for $1 million, now rented to an electrical contractor.
Today, IronHorn owns more than 100 industrial properties worth an estimated $200 million in 17 states, with 66 employees (up from just 10 a few years ago).
Big Deals and Big Names
Among their recent purchases:
- The former Rite Aid distribution center on Henry Clay Boulevard in Clay, which they bought for $27 million in April 2025.
- A vacant 80,000-square-foot warehouse on Hiawatha Boulevard East, purchased from the Central New York Regional Market for $2 million in June. It’s now being fixed up and leased to Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards to store its 1911 brand of hard cider and spirits.
The Rite Aid property, their priciest buy yet, is just five miles from the future $100 billion Micron Technology semiconductor plant. That puts the Cleghorns at the center of one of the biggest industrial booms in upstate New York.
“All of a sudden, Syracuse has hit the radar,” Greg said. “National tenants are fighting over limited industrial space.”
Hustle, Not Handouts
The Cleghorns finance their deals the same way they started: buy properties cheap, fix them up, lease them out, then refinance to buy more. Occasionally, they sell properties to fund additional purchases.
“We joke that it would’ve been easier if we were trust fund babies with $50 million to start,” Greg said. “But we weren’t. So it’s all about adding value.”
Their acquisitions team now makes up to 200 cold calls a day, hunting for off-market deals. The brothers stress persistence: “There’s no such thing as no forever,” Greg said.
Giving Back—With Profit in Mind
Though profit is their priority, the Cleghorns don’t shy away from projects with community impact. Their $2.3 million purchase of the Midstate Athletic Community Center saved the facility from financial collapse.
“I don’t want to say we’re Mother Teresa,” Greg admitted. “We’re doing it to make a profit. But if we can help out a group that has an awesome impact on community youth sports, we will.”
The Future
With warehouses in high demand and Syracuse’s industrial profile rising thanks to Micron, the Cleghorns say they’re just getting started.
“Everybody still wants the same stuff,” Greg said. “They just don’t want to go and get it. They want it delivered to their door. And we don’t see that changing. It’s the way of the future.”