Syracuse (WSYR-TV) – After years of talk and failed plans, Onondaga County may finally be on its way to having its Convention Center Hotel.
The Legislature Chair Ryan McMahon says the hotel is the county’s Legislature's number one goal. According to county leaders, the wheels for the hotel are now in motion and the improved economy is loosening up some purse strings for financing the hotel.
The plan is first to turn Hotel Syracuse into a Convention Center Hotel and then build a new facility across the street from the Oncenter.
McMahon says that, ideally, they will ultimately have both facilities in place.
McMahon says the county can’t wait forever on Hotel Syracuse. A team is busy working on it right now.
He says that if the process doesn’t begin by this spring, the county will turn to private developers who want to build a new hotel.
McMahon indicated that there are four or five parties that are interested in putting one up across the street from the Oncenter.
"I think that will help us attract more conventions, conventions that have left because there wasn't an adjoining hotel or a hotel within walking distance,” he said.
The Hotel Syracuse’s owner is late on city and county taxes so the city will be able to seize it and sell it to a developer.
