Second hotel planned for Syracuse’s Inner Harbor, Cuomo says

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Starwood Hotels & Resorts and COR Development Co., LLC are partnering to bring a second hotel under Starwood’s Element brand to the Syracuse Inner Harbor.

That announcement was part of Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony at the Inner Harbor for Starwood’s planned Aloft Hotel.

The office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the second hotel in a news release distributed on Thursday. Cuomo was in Syracuse for the groundbreaking.

The second hotel, which will be located “adjacent” to the Aloft Hotel, will bring more than 120 additional rooms to the harbor’s waterfront, according to Cuomo’s office.

The Aloft Hotel, one of Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ nine hotel brands, is scheduled to open in the summer of 2015.

Collectively, the two hotels will create more than 500 construction jobs during development and offer ongoing hospitality-employment opportunities once the hotels are under operation, Cuomo’s office said.

The groundbreaking for the Aloft Hotel, and the plans for a second hotel nearby, are “great news” for Central New York and “yet another sign that the Upstate economy is coming back,” Cuomo contended in the release.

“As part of the Inner Harbor redevelopment project, these hotels are playing a role in bringing more than 4,000 jobs to the region and creating a vibrant space where families can enjoy the waterfront and businesses can thrive,” he said.

The two Starwood hotels are part of a larger, $350 million, mixed-use, waterfront-redevelopment project that includes environmental-remediation efforts and infrastructure improvements allowing private development along 28 acres of Syracuse’s Inner Harbor.

Funding from the governor’s regional economic-development council (REDC) initiative is making the project possible and laying the foundation for attracting privately financed developments like the Aloft Hotel, which includes $16.7 million in financing from SEFCU, Cuomo’s office said.

“COR Development is grateful for the recognition by our state, city and county leaders in recognizing the potential of the Inner Harbor redevelopment project,” Steve Aiello, president of Fayetteville–based COR Development, said in the governor’s news release.

The Syracuse Inner Harbor project is expected to create and sustain up to 4,358 direct and indirect jobs in the coming years, while also contributing an annual economic output of $259 million for the region, according to Cuomo’s office.

The project includes the investigation, remediation, and removal of environmental contaminants as well as infrastructure improvements to enable mixed-use redevelopment that includes residential, office, retail, educational, hotel, and community facilities.

In total, the planned reconstruction is about 1.2 million square feet, the governor’s office said.

The redevelopment of the Inner Harbor is a multi-phased effort that required COR Development to undertake “substantial” environmental remediation and infrastructure improvements to prepare the site for the mixed-use redevelopment project.

To date, the Central New York REDC has allocated $4.5 million to support the remediation of environmentally contaminated land, infrastructure improvements, and renovation of the Canal Corporation freight house.

Work at the Inner Harbor site thus far has resulted in the removal of more than 100,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil, and the demolition of six buildings, Cuomo’s office said.

The Inner Harbor project meets the Central New York REDC’s goal of repurposing existing assets and infrastructure to attract new, “high-density” development while also capitalizing on “valuable” waterfront property, according to the governor’s office.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com