Ramada Syracuse closing for demolition, 74 jobs lost

SALINA, N.Y. — The Ramada Syracuse, a 150-room hotel at 1305 Buckley Road in Salina, will close on Sept. 7 in preparation for an October demolition.

The hotel currently has 74 staff members — about half work full time — whose positions will be terminated the day the hotel closes, according to owner Anthony Mangano.

Mangano co-owns six hotels — three in the Liverpool area and two in the city of Watertown, in addition to the Ramada in Salina — with his cousin, Carmen Emmi, Jr. He is working to help each employee transfer to one of their other hotels, or possibly land a job at a hotel they don’t own, Mangano says.

He is also working with the state Department of Labor to provide job retraining and counseling services, he adds.

Mangano and Emmi have proposed a new 5-story, 124-room Hampton Inn & Suites for the site. They have been granted site-plan approval from the Salina planning board, but are waiting to secure funding for the $16 million project before it can move forward, says Mangano, who emphasizes that it is still just a proposal.

Mangano, whose father purchased the Ramada in 1982, says the decision to close the nearly 50-year-old hotel was extremely difficult. Since that purchase, the building has undergone about half a dozen renovations, he says. An indoor pool facility was added in 2009. It will not be demolished and could become part of the new proposed Hampton Inn & Suites.

Although the Ramada’s revenue had held steady, Mangano says costs to run the facility have been increasing — what he calls “the reality of the world” — and raising the room rates hasn’t been successful in making up the difference.

“A lot of customers are sad to see it go,” says Mangano. “It seems rather bold, but when we look at our financial situation and our economic situation within our family, we think this is the best move. … We have to do what reality forces us to do in order to maintain our future.”

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