Syracuse Post-Standard By John Mariani Staff writer
The vacant Hotel Syracuse should house construction workers who migrate to town to build Destiny USA, Republican mayoral candidate Joanie Mahoney proposed Thursday.
After speaking with Destiny planners, Mahoney said she believes Central New York does not have enough hotel beds to accommodate the number of out-of-town workers needed to build the multibillion-dollar project.
Housing them at the Hotel Syracuse could boost sales tax revenues and help surrounding downtown businesses, she said.
The problem is that the city doesn't own the hotel, said Erick Mullen, speaking for Mayor Matt Driscoll, Mahoney's Democratic rival. It's owned by the First Bank of Oak Park, which foreclosed on the hotel and shut it down. An investment group has signed a letter of intent to buy it, but the deal is pending. The investors' local lawyer is Robert Romeo, the Onondaga County Democratic chairman and a Driscoll adviser.
Mullen accused Mahoney of raising a "nonexistent campaign issue" to misrepresent a tax settlement last year on the property.
In her announcement, Mahoney said the Common Council, at Driscoll's direction, forgave $2 million of the $3.1 million in back taxes owed on the property. Mullen said that as the result of U.S. Bankruptcy Court negotiations, the city received $1.08 million in unpaid taxes and the promise of an additional $300,000 by the end of 2005, a better package than the $500,000 the city originally was offered.
Mahoney said she was trying to get a conversation going about the hotel's future, something she said Driscoll had failed to do.
Green Party designee Howie Hawkins said Mahoney was "getting ahead of herself."
The city must uphold its end of a deal with Destiny officials to expand Carousel Center, he said, but there is no agreement on the grander Destiny USA resort for which the mall would serve as a nucleus. He said he opposes Destiny USA because of the types of jobs it would create and its potential impact on the environment and local business.
Regarding Hotel Syracuse, Hawkins said he would rather redevelop that complex than have the community build a new convention center hotel, as has also been proposed.