Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY
Hotel planned at Alco site
Upscale apartment complex also slated along riverfront
BY BETHANY BUMP Gazette Reporter

    A multistory hotel and upscale riverfront apartment complex are the first projects to be announced in the planned redevelopment of the former Alco industrial site on Erie Boulevard along the Mohawk River.
    Developers of the site said Wednesday that a market study completed with input from several area institutions and companies showed an interest in putting up a hotel and residential space on the 60-acre brownfi eld site.
    “We want to make sure we do the right thing for Schenectady,” said Galesi Group COO David Buicko. “The nice thing about this project is that it is in a brownfield and it already has approvals by the city, so we can move pretty quickly.”
    Construction will begin in early 2013 and is expected to take about nine months.
    Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority Chairman Ray Gillen said at a board meeting Wednesday night that a hotel group has been chosen for the site and that it’s a very “well-known” brand name, though he would not identify it.
    The city currently is home to the Holiday Inn and Hampton Inn, as well as several smaller hotels.
    “This hotel is much-needed,” said Gillen. “The market study showed that there is quite a bit of demand for additional hotel beds in the Schenectady market, due to GE and other factors.”
    The hotel and the apartment complex will each include 100 to 150 units. The apartment buildings will contain a mix of upscale one-, two- and three-bedroom units, and likely be three or four stories tall.
    Developers are still deciding between several designs for the hotel, but said it will be multistory and could change based on which hotel brand ends up there.
    “We want it to blend in and be a natural extension of the Stockade,” said Buicko.
    City and county offi cials have lauded plans to redevelop one of the oldest brownfield sites in the country, which once served as home to Schenectady’s booming locomotive industry.
    Now that the Alco project and Erie Boulevard project are fi nally moving along, Gillen said he expects to see further interest from businesses looking to settle along the Erie Boulevard corridor.
    “We’re actively showing the site to office tenants,” he said. “And developers and friends in Glenville are excited about this because it really is the gateway to Glenville. It will be a nicer gateway to their community than it used to be.”
    Because of the size and scope of the project, it is being funded and completed in several phases. Overall redevelopment of the site could eventually cost as much as $200 million.
    Construction of the hotel and apartment complex are part of phase one, which was projected to cost about $12 million and so far has involved demolition and cleanup of the site. The state awarded $4 million in Restore NY grant money toward the fi rst phase.
    Buicko declined to release the price tag for the hotel or apartments, saying it’s too early in the process to know for sure.
    “We’re comfortable that we can finance this thing pretty easily, though,” he said.
    Engineers are studying just where the hotel and apartments should be built on the site, which is currently undergoing infrastructure and remediation work. Tall mounds of dirt are visible along the site from Erie Boulevard. Buicko said the dirt will be spread where needed once construction begins.
    Both projects will be built in tandem with a riverfront trail that will serve as a walkway and bike path along the canal system.
    Nearly half a million dollars was awarded in December for development of the trail as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Councils. The state Department of State will fund $339,735 and the state Canal Corporation is putting up $140,000.
    Metroplex board member William Chapman said communities across the state are beginning to see a boost in tourism from people using local trails to traverse the state.
    “They’re needing to get food and a place to stay,” he said.
    Gillen touted the cooperation of the Galesi Group, Mayor Gary McCarthy and former mayor and current Canal Corporation Director Brian Stratton in their push to bring the bike trail back down to the waterfront. ...................>>>>........................>>>>.....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00101&AppName=1

What a waste of money, are they thinking if they build it they will come?

Yeah, that hotel next to Proctors, that elegant grand historical like (Parker Inn).   Yeah, tell us how that is doing?   Tell us how, despite being in the heart of downtown, right next door to the "crown jewel" of city -- Proctors -- tell us how many outsiders from the city are flocking to that place.   Tell us how much of the bill the taxpayers paid for.

How about the Hampton hotel?   How about the dems and the plex open up the books????    We have a birthright entitlement to know the financies of that hotel.    How much are the financially struggling homeowners paying to cover their tax bill and how much increase in home value have the homeonwers in the city been "rewarded" with in exchange for paying the Hilton family's property & school tax bills?    How many rooms are occupied on a daily basis.   Those that are occupying rooms, are they attending meetings/conferences downtown or is it that they are driving outside the county to go to meetings.  What is the cost of the rooms compared to other similar hotels.   And the occupancy rates, how does it fluctuate, is it a seasonal thing such as people staying there in May and June perhaps because of graduations and the June brides?  Or is it consistent throughout the year?  

Let's find out from those who stay at lodging locations in Colonie for example (but may be coming into the Schenectady for meetings), are they staying there because the Hampton and the Holiday Inn in Schenectady are overbooked?  Too expensive?   Too scary downtown?   Too many street people downt there -- gee, just hang out near the Hampton during the day with the psychos just a few feet away in front of the Bank of America

This stuff MUST be published for all the taxpayers to read BEFORE the taxpayers are robbed again.


.

First....the city just had one hotel pretty much go belly up.

Second....who will give them flood insurance?

Will they have a time that all the prostitutes will have to leave by in the morning?

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY
Source: Alco site Marriott OK’d Builder, developer disagree on status of deal
BY BETHANY BUMP Gazette Reporter

    The riverfront site that was once home to the American Locomotive Company may soon be home to a new Marriott hotel.
    Albany-based BBL Construction Services has said it plans to build a Residence Inn by Marriott on the former Alco site, located between Erie Boulevard and the Mohawk River. Residence Inn is one of several extended-stay lodging options that the international hotel franchise offers.
    “They approved it; now we just have to negotiate the franchise document and get all the approvals to go to work,” BBL Chief Financial Offi cer Steve Obermayer said Tuesday.
    But Galesi Group COO David Buicko said a deal hasn’t been fi nalized with a hotel franchise for the site and declined further comment Tuesday. The Galesi Group owns the nearly 60-acre parcel and announced in April that the first phase of a massive redevelopment project would be the construction of a multi-story hotel and upscale apartment complex.
    BBL has worked with Galesi Group on many projects over the years.
    Obermayer said the company will develop the hotel as part of a joint partnership with the Galesi Group and Rockgate Management, a Latham-based hotel management company.
    “It’ll be great,” he said. “Schenectady has had a really nice resurgence, and a lot of it is owed to work Galesi has done downtown. So it will be very exciting for us to work on.”
    The construction company has its own hospitality component that is responsible for at least 14 hotels in the Northeast. At least fi ve of those are Marriotts, Obermayer said.
    It’s also responsible for the Courtyard by Marriott and Saratoga Residence Inn in Saratoga Springs, a Hilton Garden Inn in Troy and Holiday Inn Expresses in Latham and East Greenbush, among others.
    The nearest Residence Inn by Marriott is on Route 7 in Latham.
    The extended-stay hotel comes with in-suite kitchens, grocery delivery, a 24-hour market, fi tness center, pool and whirlpool spa, dry cleaning and on-site laundry, free Wi-Fi and lower rates for longer stays, according to the Marriott website. .............................>>>>....................>>>>................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00100&AppName=1

And this begs the question-Is the "fix" in to re-locate the RPI nuclear facility/STS steel co. with taxpayer funded $$$$$ through Metroplex $$$$$?   For why would a company of the Marriotts stature put a high upscale hotel in between these 2 eyesores'?   We would not have any of our out of town guests board there with these 2 venues present.     Have promises been made?   No info. is forthcoming as to the resolution/plan on the relocation of these 2 possibly project success impeding venues.   On 6/13/12 STS filed a lawsuit vs. the Galesi Group.   This centered around the landlocking of the steel co. movements within the ALCO site.   And last year accd. to the GAZETTE the city wanted RPI to remove the nuclear facility.   This would be at a cost of over $500,000.00 which RPI said they do not have as a result of endowment concerns.  And the City does not have the $$$$$ so they say.   So where does this leave the PLEX/City to resolve said eyesores?   Recently it was reported in the media that Galesi is paying $40,000.00 year in property taxes on the site.  And once fully developed they will pay a pilot,said amount is unknown.    It is not surprising to this taxpayer that ALCO related issues do not come to the fore in public with the PLEX involvement, as recently they would not divulge who the owners are of the new beer garden at Union St./Lower Broadway by the RR overpass.   This despite TAXPAYER PLEX $$$$$ given to them in the form of grant/facade $$$$$.   Also the improvments to the roadway and all new sidewalks surrounding the establishment have been completed.

Good thing we can move quickly.  All the hotels and motels in the area are already filled up.  

Are these PILOTS legal?  Didnt the Metroplex Bond rating recently make a statement to the effect that they might be challenged in court?

another hotel where sex offenders will live

Actually, revitalizing the waterfront would be genius if they could do it...Join it with the Stockade neighborhood, the rebuilt Erie Boulevard and lower State Street. Like I said in another thread: Let the ghetto chew itself to pieces while the yuppies have their playground. Sound logic, but show me the money.

Quoted from senders

another hotel where sex offenders will live

Yep.

write them some checks and let them have it all free so the people making 30 grand a year can pay the full boat on their taxes ($6,000) on a house worth $50,000. That is the fair (democrap) way. Just dont forget to get donations to the "party" along the way from the fat cats.

Quoted from Hack

Actually, revitalizing the waterfront would be genius if they could do it...Join it with the Stockade neighborhood, the rebuilt Erie Boulevard and lower State Street. Like I said in another thread: Let the ghetto chew itself to pieces while the yuppies have their playground. Sound logic, but show me the money.

The project at the old ALCO will be a great tie-in -- to the Stockade, Lower State, Downtown and don't forget the College Park and Northend/VanVraken corridor.  And eventually, this momentum will benefit the entire city (all the neighborhoods) and the entire county.

We need to continue to think positively and keep moving economic development in the right direction.  

fancier benches for the bums to lay on and insult passers-by.

Why not kill two birds with one stone?