SYRACUSE — The head of the U.S. Green Building Council will be on hand in mid-February to help recognize Hotel Skyler for its green design and construction. S. Richard Fedrizzi, the founding chair of the Washington, D.C.–based Green Building Council and the organization’s president and CEO, will help honor Hotel Skyler for receiving the council’s […]
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SYRACUSE — The head of the U.S. Green Building Council will be on hand in mid-February to help recognize Hotel Skyler for its green design and construction.
S. Richard Fedrizzi, the founding chair of the Washington, D.C.–based Green Building Council and the organization’s president and CEO, will help honor Hotel Skyler for receiving the council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certification.
Fedrizzi, a Camillus native, will attend a plaque presentation ceremony on the morning of Feb. 14, according to Thomas Fernandez, director of business development for the Woodbine Group of Syracuse, the company that owns and developed Hotel Skyler. The hotel received LEED platinum certification Nov. 17, 2011, after first registering with the Green Building Council in March 2009.
The Hotel Skyler building previously housed Temple Adath Yeshurun and the Salt City Theatre Group. It stands at 601 S. Crouse Ave., near Syracuse University’s campus.
The Woodbine Group acquired the building in 2006 and began renovations in 2010, according to Fernandez. Construction wrapped up in early 2011, and the hotel opened shortly after it hosted guest tours during the week of April 18, 2011.
Renovations cost about $6.5 million, 25 percent of which the Woodbine Group funded with its own equity. It used loans from the Albany–based credit union SEFCU and Oswego–based Pathfinder Bank for the rest of the financing.
The project’s architect was Edwin Harrington Architects, PC of Syracuse. Its interior was designed by Charity Swanson Buchika, principal of Elan Interiors of Syracuse. She is also the daughter of the Woodbine Group owner and president Norman Swanson.
Hotel Skyler now contains three floors and 58 rooms. It is 36,000 square feet.
“We’re third in the country, 10th in the world to be an LEED platinum hotel,” Fernandez says. “We’re the only one in the United States that is repurposing an existing structure.”
The Woodbine Group used 95 percent of the building’s existing shell, including window cuts and door cuts, according to Fernandez. An elevator bay is the only exterior addition the group made, he says.
The hotel includes numerous design elements aimed at LEED certification. It uses a 16-well geothermal heating and cooling system with wells that descend 499 feet underground to regulate room temperatures.
It is also surrounded outside by pervious pavers, which are permeable to water, according to Lynee Sauer, business manager at the Woodbine Group.
“In our region, we get a lot of rain, we get a lot of snowfall,” Sauer says. “When those things occur, the storm drains can be compromised. With the pervious pavers, the storm water actually percolates back into the soil.”
More than 20 percent of material costs during renovations went toward recycled materials, Sauer says. And the hotel’s interior incorporates stained-glass windows from a church in Oswego and wainscoting that was salvaged from the Lincoln Supply Warehouse in Syracuse, she adds. Wainscoting is wooden paneling lining an interior wall.
Plus, the hotel’s rooms have a keycard energy-management system. That system switches off most of a room’s electrical outlets until a guest inserts a keycard in a slot near the door.
“It turns on the HVAC, it activates the television and so forth so that the room is essentially powered up,” Sauer says. “So it gives the guests the ability to take a firsthand role in energy management. When they leave the room they pull that card, and the room actually de-energizes after 60 seconds.”
The hotel’s energy savings are “significant,” according to Sauer, who did not provide specific energy-cost savings estimates because the hotel is in the early stages of tracking.
Hotel Skyler’s LEED platinum certification is the highest of four levels established by the U.S. Green Building Council. The hotel earned 53 points under the LEED for New Construction Rating System version 2.2 — the version of the LEED rating system for which it qualified, according to Fernandez.
Under that scale, a building can earn up to 69 points. LEED platinum certification goes to buildings earning 52 to 69 points. Buildings earn points in six categories including sustainable sites, water efficiency, and indoor environmental quality.
The Woodbine Group anticipates Hotel Skyler revenue to total more than $2 million in 2012. The company did not provide a revenue total for 2011. The hotel’s room rates currently range from $107.10 to $359, according to its website.
The group also owns two other hotels near the Syracuse University campus: the Genesee Grande Hotel at 1060 E. Genesee St. and the Parkview Hotel at 713 E. Genesee St.
The Woodbine Group employs more than 200 people, according to Fernandez. Hotel employees rotate between the three hotels, but Hotel Skyler typically has six to seven staff members on the property at a time, he says.
