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Hilton Garden Inn One Step Closer
Developers of a downtown hotel were back at city hall looking to move this hotel project forward. Earlier, members of the Auburn Planning Board saw their first glimpse of the site plan for a 71,000 square-foot, 92-room Hilton Garden hotel proposed to go up at the corner of Water and State streets.
The board named itself as the lead agency for the hotel project’s environmental review, and representatives with the hotel developer and city say the board’s final vote will come within the next month or two.
“We’re continuing to complete that sign design,” said David Norcross, of Pioneer Companies, the Syracuse Developer behind the hotel project. “I would anticipate that we will probably not have final plans that are in a position for the planning board until January or February,” he later said.
Norcross presented the preliminary plan on November 3rd. During the presentation, he said the plan includes a four-story hotel, a 90-seat restaurant and bar, a 270-seat conference center and 110 on-site parking spaces.
During the meeting, members of the board focused their questions mainly on street access, water run-off and traffic concerns, according to the minutes from the meeting. The design drawings are about 90 percent complete, Norcross said. If the project moves forward as anticipated, work will begin in spring and last about a year. “We’re anticipating the project opening approximately May 2012,” he said.
The city planning staff is currently working on an environmental review for the project, which includes contacting multiple agencies and soliciting possible comments or concerns. Stephen Selvek, a senior planner with the Auburn Department of Planning and Economic Development, said that will likely take until early January.
This is the latest activity for the hotel project at city hall dating back to March 2010, when representatives with Pioneer made their first public pitch to the Auburn Industrial Development Authority.
More recently, the city council voted to sell a short stretch of Water Street located at the site to the developer for $1. At the same time, Michael Falcone – founder of Pioneer and the driving force behind the project – agreed to fund work for a parking lot across the street from the hotel.
The project was controversial with residents and public officials initially because the developer asked the agency to grant a number of tax breaks and to use eminent domain to obtain multiple properties at the site. Eminent domain was eventually taken off the table, though the project did receive a 25-year tax abatement agreement that will freeze the property’s assessment for 15 years.
Instead of acquiring the properties through eminent domain, representatives with Pioneer worked out separate agreements with each property owner. One, a dog grooming business, will remain next to the hotel. Norcross said the hotel developer will finalize purchasing the final properties in the next couple months – right about the same time they hope to receive the city’s final approval.
The developer also applied recently to the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Brownfield Cleanup Program. The program helps private entities with projects on properties that could include environmental complications, with the state overseeing cleanup on accepted sites.
The program also gives tax credits for the companies that carry out the cleanup work. The DEC approved the Auburn hotel project application and is awaiting some final paperwork from the developer, according to the DEC.
—The Citizen, Staff writer Christopher Caskey
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