Syracuse Developments (Montgomery, Ontario, Lakeland: 2009, apartments, credit)

[acknight]

Originally Posted by lookinforahome

Is this the hotel you spoke of?

Downtown Syracuse Development Showcase | Planned Project Details

What's the story on this building?

Downtown Syracuse Development Showcase | Planned Project Details

Where can I find renderings of the Washington Station? Is it a definite go ahead? Its good that it is replacing a surface lot. I've noticed on Google maps that much of the downtown area seems to be parking lots. It would definetly be good to develop those.

Nope. The first of those is a building planned for a parking lot on the corner of Fayette and Franklin, just east of the Warehouse building. The last news on that from the fall was they delayed starting as prices of both financing and materials were rapidly declining at the time, and they hoped this spring would be more favorable to their project.

The latter is the oft-delayed OnCenter Convention Center hotel, due to be a Westin. Both hotels are to be in the 6-7 story range, if memory serves. They are both replacing ugly surface parking lots, and the OnCenter hotel is next to three much smaller buildings (the OnCenter, War Memorial and Everson barely rise to 2-3 stories) and a few higher-rise (18-20 story) apartment complexes.

Article link (no pictures, though) for Washington Station: O'Brien & Gere sells DeWitt building, path clear for Armory Square move

The one picture they have in the Downtown development showcase doesn't show a whole lot. Downtown Syracuse Development Showcase | Planned Project Details

OBG's page has a picture: The Pioneer Company, Commissioning and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Syracuse, NY

[RollsRoyce]

Originally Posted by acknight

Nope. The first of those is a building planned for a parking lot on the corner of Fayette and Franklin, just east of the Warehouse building. The last news on that from the fall was they delayed starting as prices of both financing and materials were rapidly declining at the time, and they hoped this spring would be more favorable to their project.

The latter is the oft-delayed OnCenter Convention Center hotel, due to be a Westin. Both hotels are to be in the 6-7 story range, if memory serves. They are both replacing ugly surface parking lots, and the OnCenter hotel is next to three much smaller buildings (the OnCenter, War Memorial and Everson barely rise to 2-3 stories) and a few higher-rise (18-20 story) apartment complexes.

Article link (no pictures, though) for Washington Station: O'Brien & Gere sells DeWitt building, path clear for Armory Square move

The one picture they have in the Downtown development showcase doesn't show a whole lot. Downtown Syracuse Development Showcase | Planned Project Details

OBG's page has a picture: The Pioneer Company, Commissioning and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Syracuse, NY

The first link the OP forwarded is indeed the proposed Residence Inn/Courtyard Hotel project by RHS holdings. Classifying it as a hotel is a more accurate characterization than just a "building."

[lookinforahome]

I actually don't mind the look of the Washington Square. It is a bit funky looking though, with the multicolor bricks or whatever that material is. The rest of the building, kind of glassy, isn't too bad. It looks boxy though. Too bad they couldn't build up instead of out

About that convention center, I saw another forum this picture:

http://newkai.com/mt/archives/images...ntionHotel.jpg


What is that? Is that the convention center before it was scaled down or something?
What is the 350 Washington Atrium Garage?

Thanks again guys for being so helpful.

[RollsRoyce]

That was the proposal submitted by the original developer who is now building Washington Station. The initial developer, Pioneer Cos pulled out of the project due to a stipulation imposed by the city that a contentious project labor agreement (PLA)be included. Pioneer alleged a PLA mandate would drive up the cost of developing and staffing the hotel. Wilmorite, a Rochester, NY based developer agreed to take on the project and changed the design to an ugly 7 story box that looks strikingly similar to the project architect's other Westin hotels in suburban airport locations. The number of rooms between both hotels is relatively constant, however the new design takes up the entire lot to complement the bland and stubby Everson Museum across the street. A 25 story full glass facade building would have been ideal. The rest of the lot could have been used for apartments or condos. The Westin in Minneapolis was a combination hotel and residence project.

350 Washington was proposed by the current owner of the Atrium Garage. It would add additional floors to the existing garage, incorporate a new facade hiding the view of cars, and add several floors of office space. This project as with many others is stalled at best and dead at worst. The owner of this garage controls at least half of the downtown office market. Each year it seems this man and several of his partners buy additional downtown buildings at below market prices. Since they own such a large share of real estate, they put little money into updating properties since there is no competition. Many of the remaining Class A and Class B buildings not under their ownership, contract with their firm J.F Real Estate for brokerage and building management services. Since office rents in Syracuse are among the lowest of the Top 100 metro areas, and have declined since 1990 when adjusted for and in many cases not adjusting for inflation, national landlords and REIT's have sold their local portfolios. It's unlikely this guy has the resources without signfiicant outside financing to make needed improvements and commence with the 350 Washington Project based on the paltry income generated by rents and the poor overall economic climate. I hope I'm wrong and 350 Washington will proceed.

[lookinforahome]

A 25 story full glass facade building would have been ideal.

That would've been nice I wouldn't mind seeing one of those sprout up in here in Portland either...

Syracuse seems like it has a lot going for it downtown. I hope it continues. Maybe a few more highrises, fill in those parking lots, more housing...I saw a map with labels of Restaurants and Art Galleries and such around Syracuse (I think I was sent the link at the beginning of this thread), the amount of business going on is astounding!

[acknight]

Originally Posted by RollsRoyce

The first link the OP forwarded is indeed the proposed Residence Inn/Courtyard Hotel project by RHS holdings. Classifying it as a hotel is a more accurate characterization than just a "building."

Last I checked, hotels are buildings too

I thought they were referring to the other hotel, the taller DUSA hotel, in that post.

[bellafinzi]

Originally Posted by RollsRoyce

Wilmorite, a Rochester, NY based developer agreed to take on the project and changed the design to an ugly 7 story box that looks strikingly similar to the project architect's other Westin hotels in suburban airport locations. The number of rooms between both hotels is relatively constant, however the new design takes up the entire lot to complement the bland and stubby Everson Museum across the street. A 25 story full glass facade building would have been ideal. The rest of the lot could have been used for apartments or condos. The Westin in Minneapolis was a combination hotel and residence project.

I e-mailed Wilmorite a few years ago about the convention center hotel. This was before it was announced as a Westin. I explained to Wilmorite that Syracuse could really use a landmark signature hotel design like the Westin in Charlotte, NC. Of course they never responded. But I was pleased that Wilmorite went with the Westin chain.

Just wish they would have listened to my thoughts about a tall cutting edge design for the project.

[RollsRoyce]

Originally Posted by lookinforahome

That would've been nice I wouldn't mind seeing one of those sprout up in here in Portland either...

Syracuse seems like it has a lot going for it downtown. I hope it continues. Maybe a few more highrises, fill in those parking lots, more housing...I saw a map with labels of Restaurants and Art Galleries and such around Syracuse (I think I was sent the link at the beginning of this thread), the amount of business going on is astounding!

Syracuse is a great city and has alot of potential. Many new art galleries and several new restaurants have opened downtown over the past 2 years.

[lookinforahome]

Yea I read an article about the effects of having that large Marriot downtown and it sounded great.

Attract 90,000 visitors annually
Generate 17.4$ million in visitor spending
Generate 2.1$ million in sales tax revenue
Generate 418,300$ in hotel room occupancy tax revenues annually

Sounds great. Now all that needs to happen is something like that be built.

[RollsRoyce]

Originally Posted by bellafinzi

I e-mailed Wilmorite a few years ago about the convention center hotel. This was before it was announced as a Westin. I explained to Wilmorite that Syracuse could really use a landmark signature hotel design like the Westin in Charlotte, NC. Of course they never responded. But I was pleased that Wilmorite went with the Westin chain.

Just wish they would have listened to my thoughts about a tall cutting edge design for the project.

I saw the Charlotte Westin when I was in NC on business last fall. At first glance I said to myself, "Wow, I wish Syracuse could have a design like that."