Views of proposed work on front and side of Hotel Lenhart
The future owners of the Hotel Lenhart have big plans in store for the historic structure.
Bill and Jill Curry presented their renovation proposal to the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency Board as part of their request for a $500,000 Al Tech loan.
Bill Curry said he’s been a design builder for over 40 years with Jill being in the hospitality industry with Marriot and Hilton for over 25 years.
Curry said the Lenhart is in need of significant upgrades, “Stair towers, sprinkler system, and fire alarms. We also want to provide full access for anyone who comes to our campus. So we will have access for anybody at any level of need. We plan to add a rooftop area, which is the center area, which will have an elevator to it. So anybody who walks in the front door can get to that spot and enjoy the view from the roof.”
Curry said the laundry facility will be turned into a standalone bakery and creamery and that a spa will be added to the building the has employee housing. He said that housing will be moved to a different floor. Other amenities planned include a heated pool and dropping the number of rooms from 57 to 40 so that all rooms have a private bathroom.
Curry said they hope to close on the property by the end of April, with it likely taking nine months to do work.
The cost of the project is $9.8 million. The village of Bemus Point has applied for a $2 million Restore New York grant for the project and another $2 million grant request has been made to the state.
The IDA Board approved the Al Tech loan request as well as a 15-year PILOT. The Curry’s said the project will have 65 temporary jobs during construction, 46 full time employees when the hotel reopens, with 58 total employees by year three.
Sounds great to me! Either someone steps up to do what’s described here or slowly watch the building crumble with a condemned sign on front door.
Love the ideas!!
This is what dreams are made of !
Been going to the Lenhart for years.. love it! I have my own rocking chair on the porch..excited for the changes!
Let’s hope the changes will be able to keep the long time feel of the hotel and that they will help to keep this longtime part of the region open for many years to come.
WOW !!
What about the rocking chairs? My family took our family picture there for 25+ years
Sounds wonderful! Looking forward to 2024 – can’t wait to enjoy the rooftop for food and drinks!
I so love this hotel on the shore of Lake Chautauqua at Bemis Point in Western New York. Just a couple of hours drive from Pittsburgh.
The porch filled with people in rocking chairs watching the sunset over the lake on a hot summer night while sipping a “Lenhart Rocker”. A room with those large hot and cold faucet knobs that you remember from when you were a kid. No air conditioning…just a fan and an open window with a cool breeze coming off of the lake. No TV. No Wi-Fi. In the morning you would be awoken by the smell of flapjacks and bacon coming from the large dining room that would wake your nose up while the sound of the early morning fishermen hitting the lake would finish the job of getting you out of bed.
So many nights that porch became a place where I could sit and try to figure out my life after getting laid off from KDKA, a divorce and ultimately coming back from a coma. I don’t know if anyplace in the world felt as good to me as sitting on that porch rocking in one of the chairs while talking to someone who came down from Buffalo or Youngstown or Cleveland. Such great salt of the earth people. You had to give up some of the amenities to stay at the Lenhart but you got so much more back from a place frozen in a better time and place.
I wish the new owners well and hope that they keep the local students working in the dining room and the small bar with one of the nicest bartenders I have ever met. I hope they keep the ambiance of the Grand Old Lenhart in place.There are not many places like this left in the world at a time when we need them more than ever.
Hotel Lenhart
Bemis Point NY
Chautauqua Lake
Sounds good hopefully keeping the historic feel of the place, That brought us back year after year the charm of the porch the bar and we missed having dinner in the old fashioned dining room but breakfast was always special.
Sounds like a great plan!