The Chautauqua Harbor Hotel (image from Facebook)

CELORON, NY – The brand new Chautauqua Harbor Hotel is now open for business.

On Thursday afternoon dozens of local officials and community members joined the developers of the project in Lucille Ball’s hometown of Celoron, NY for an official ribbon-cutting to open the $38 million, 130,000 sq-ft facility – which features 135 rooms and large banquet room, and other amenities.

Among those on hand was Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello.

“Today we celebrate this grand opening of this grand hotel,” Borrello said. “This is the single largest investment in hospitality ever in Chautauqua County at nearly $40 million. This is a huge step forward for us. It really is a quantum leap for Chautauqua County and Chautauqua Lake when it comes to the hospitality industry.”

Joining Borrello was Krog Group CEO Peter Krog, who’s company developed the project, along with David Hart, president of Hart Hotels, which will own and operate the facility.

“We know from experience that the hotel will be a big economic generator,” Hart said. “It will significantly increase the transnational tax activities – sales tax and bed tax. It will add significantly to the employment ranks here. And if you don’t know, this will be a 365-day facility, meaning we will be open every day of the year.”

Hart also said that now that the hotel is part of Chautauqua Lake, he wants to be part of the ongoing discussion focusing on the health of natural resource.

“Peter and I are committed to using our platform with this new development to help coalesce all the various parties and the things that they think will help treat the water properly to get it to the quality that we all want and want to enjoy – whether it be fishing, or boating, or sunset watching… I think everybody’s got an idea worth listening to and we think this hotel will shine a light on those issues,” Hart said.

Celoron Mayor Scott Schrecengost was also on hand and said the opening was the culmination of years of planning by the village.

The project was supported with several local and state development incentives, including state grants totaling more than $1.9 million and a Community Development Block Award from New York State Homes and Community Renewal for $750,000. The Chautauqua County IDA also offered incentives, including waivers on mortgage tax and sales tax and a 15-year payment in lieu of taxes agreement.

Approximately 110 full-time jobs will be supported at Chautauqua Harbor.

The Chautauqua Harbor Hotel (image from Facebook)

CELORON – After months of construction, the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel in Celoron is ready to open its doors.

A special ribbon cutting ceremony for the new $38 million, 130,000 sq-ft facility will take place Thursday afternoon and will feature both local and regional officials as well as representatives from Hart Hotels, which is the developer for the project.

Chautauqua Harbor includes 135 rooms and large banquet facility, along with other amenities.

The project was supported with several local and state development incentives, including state grants totaling more than $1.9 million and a Community Development Block Award from New York State Homes and Community Renewal for $750,000. The Chautauqua County IDA also offered incentives, including waivers on mortgage tax and sales tax and a 15-year payment in lieu of taxes agreement.

Approximately 110 full-time jobs will be supported at Chautauqua Harbor.

The Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency board of directors hear details of the 2016 audit from CPA Dave DeTanna (Buffamonte, Whipple, and Buttafaro), during the board’s March 2017 meeting.

JAMESTOWN – The Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency board of directors Tuesday signed off on cancelling nearly $900,000 in money owed through loans for a failed business in Falconer.

More than $1,000,000 in loans was given to Jamestown MVP Plastics in 2011 and 2012 to help with the purchase of a facility and new equipment. Jamestown MVP was a start-up company that had plans to produce environmentally-safe plastics at the former Sysco Foods location at 2060 Allen St. Ext.

However, the market never developed for the products and the company was forced to close its doors late last year. As a result, Jamestown MVP Plastics was unable to pay off the remainder of the money it owed on two IDA Al Tech loans, totaling $850 thousand dollars (one initial 20-year loan for $500,000 was approved in 2011, and a second loan for $500,000 was approved in 2012), along with another Chautauqua Revolving Loan Fund loan totaling $47,142 (of an original $75,000 loan approved in 2012).

The cancelled loans represents about 8 percent of the total amount of money the IDA is able to loan out.

IDA Director Kevin Sanvidge said the cancellation of the loans was disappointing, and members of the IDA board agreed. However, Sandvidge also noted that the IDA Board probably wouldn’t have done anything differently to prevent the loans from being given to the project, largely because the loans were also reviewed and approved by an independent loan committee, prior to the IDA board signing off on them.

“It is an independent loan committee made up of two [IDA] board directors and five independent local bankers, so they look at all the information – business plan and financials of an investor – and make a decision, as they would with any loan that would come in front of their bank. The difference is we don’t have Dodd-Frank telling us what to do and what not to do,” Sanvidge told WRFA, alluding to the federal law that places strict regulations on banks when it comes to giving loans to individuals and businesses.

Sanvidge added that there was some risk involved with giving the loan to Jamestown MVP and the IDA did give some leeway, but that was countered by the amount of private investment money the company was putting toward the project.

“The leeway here would have been the lack of strong costumer base, but also the fact that he invested $10 million into this – between the purchasing and upgrading the building and buying new equipment,” Sanvidge said. “It’s a fabulous building and now there’s a new owner in the building looking to move forward with a well-established manufacturing company.”

When Jamestown MVP received the loans from the IDA, it had said it planned to hire 125 people and would be the largest customer for the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities.

IDA BOARD RECEIVES CLEAN AUDIT FOR 2016

In other news, the IDA also received its independent audit for 2016 from Dave DaTanna of Buffamante, Whipple, and Buttafaro.

The audit showed the IDA had a total of $19 million in total assets and $13.27 million in net assets, which were down about $75,000 from the previous year. However, it also showed the IDA had a significantly higher amount of administrative revenue than the previous year, mostly through an increase of $800,000 in application fees collected by the IDA.

“One of the [application fees] was from the Celoron Hotel project, which is a $31-33 million project,” Sanvidge said. “I’d like to say we’re going to do one of those a year, along with manufacturing projects. But that’s our job, to go out and try and land these projects and [the Celoron Hotel] is the grand slam in the World Series for us. But we do keep swinging and swinging for the fence, and it pays off.”

The audit presented by DaTanna was unmodified with no exceptions, meaning it was clean. It also had no  major recommendations for the IDA board, in terms of how it manages or controls its finances.  The 2016 audit will be posted on the IDA website in the coming days.

The hotel project will receive a tourism payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT), mortgage recording tax, and sales tax benefits from the IDA. In addition, the IDA board also approved the project’s state environmental quality review, which is required for it to move forward.

The project still needs to clear a few more hurdles before construction can start. On Monday the Celoron Planning Board will review the plans for a hotel at the village Community Center. That meeting will begin at 7 p.m.

The Celoron Zoning Board will also consider a variance for the project on Oct. 24, since the hotel is being constructed less than 100 feet from the Chautauqua Lake shoreline.

If the project is able to break ground in November, the anticipated opening date would be in spring 2018.

The hotel, which is being built by Hart Hotels out of Buffalo, will have 132 rooms, a banquet facility, pools, a bar and cocktail lounge, and  other amenities.

In other action, the IDA approved an Al Tech loan for a brew pub in downtown Jamestown.

According to the Post-Journal, the IDA board approved a $100,000 Al Tech loan for Jamestown Brewery. Buffalo resident John McClellan Sr. is serving as the sole principal of Jamestown Brewery – which is planned to be a full-service manufacturing craft and farm brewery in the Lillian Ney Renaissance Center building on West Third Street, at the intersection with Washington Street. The total cost of the project is $5.2 million. The money from the loan will be used for renovations at the Renaissance Center.

The facility also received a $500,000 Main Street Anchor Grant, secured by Jamestown Renaissance Corporation, which was secured during the 2015 New York State Consolidated Funding Application process.

If the project goes forward as scheduled, it could open by summer or early fall of 2017.