The city of Plattsburgh has been working with a developer on a hotel development on a parcel of the downtown that is adjacent to the waterfront. A resolution before the Common Council to authorize the development agreement was tabled during Thursday night’s meeting.
The development agreement with Skyward Hospitality is for construction of a hotel with about 125 rooms, 4,000 square feet of meeting space, a restaurant and other facilities.
During the Common Council’s July 20th meeting, Ward 3 Democrat Elizabeth Gibbs brought up during new business her desire to have an independent feasibility study conducted to make sure the project would be successful. As the development agreement came up for approval Thursday, Gibbs expressed new concerns. She first quizzed Community Development Director Matthew Miller about the assessed value of the property.
“It says in the agreement that we are going to sell the property for roughly $1.2 million," noted Goibbs. "Do we know what the assessed value of that parcel is?”
“The assessed value, I don’t believe currently exists," repleid Miller, "because the parcel was only recently subdivided. An assessment of the parcel with the amended boundaries has not yet been completed. But the value included in the development agreement is based on an appraisal report completed as part of the development process for this hotel and that indicated a full market value of the parcel that’s the subject of the agreement, post subdivision, of $1.255 million, which is what is specified in the DA.”
Councilor Gibbs then went on to question Miller about past soil sampling reports and whether further information is available.
“That engineering report stated how much weight the ground could bear in order to guide the development of how tall, how large, how much," related Gibbs. "I feel that council really should have that information before we make any kind of vote on this.”
“The due diligence period," Miller noted, "which commences immediately upon execution of the agreement includes the developer to do all of the necessary soil samples, geotechnical borings, evaluation of prior site history to determine what can be built.”
“I understand that," countered Gibbs. "But I think that the council should have that information before we move forward on this.”
“Sorry, just to be clear...” Mayor Chris Rosenquest, a Democrat, broke in. “What would be the purpose of the council having information on past studies? How does that pertain to this development agreement that would require the developer themselves to pay for that level of analysis at that property?”
“If the developer has to pay for remediation it basically comes off of the sale price,” answered Gibbs.
Ward 6 Democrat Jeff Moore called the project a complete waste of time.
“There hasn’t been a viable hotel downtown in 50 years. There’s really no reason for anybody to want to stay in downtown Plattsburgh. And it’s not downtown. It’s even in a worse location. I’ve been all over the country. I have never stayed in a hotel next to a wastewater plant. I just cannot believe that this is going to work out. I think we’re all just spinning our wheels and wasting our time. We should be trying to get some housing in the city, which we really need.”
Ward 5 Democrat Caitlin Bopp moved to table action to approve the development agreement. It passed on a 5 to 1 vote with Ward 2 Democrat Mike Kelly casting the nay vote. The measure will come up at the next scheduled Common Council meeting on August 17th..
Contacted Friday morning, Mayor Rosenquest said he does not believe a couple weeks delay will affect the project’s progress and had pointed remarks about its opponents.
“I think that it certainly is concerning from the sitting mayor and it should be concerning from any voting public about councilors who are more actively trying to block a large-scale development like this rather than find a path to support it. Especially when we also have sitting councilors that have a negative opinion about downtown and making claims that nobody comes downtown.”
Rosenquest added that he agrees with Councilor Moore’s housing concerns.
“If we’re going to put housing on our waterfront, I guarantee you it’s not going to be low to moderate income housing. I 100 percent agree that we do need housing. And what the city of Plattsburgh is doing is finalizing a Comprehensive Master Plan and making the appropriate changes to the zoning code to facilitate the development of more housing.”
