Courtesy Spruce Hospitality Group
Construction of a new hotel near Northway Exit 18 will begin later this year and its ownership group is expecting it to be open as soon as the summer of 2017.
The Spruce Hospitality Group will build and own the 80-room Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott. It will be built off Big Boom Road in Queensbury.
Spruce Hospitality is the same group that will manage The Queensbury Hotel, a downtown Glens Falls landmark purchased by Queensbury businessman Ed Moore. Moore is overseeing the renovation and revival of that hotel.
Spruce Hospitality will be the management group when it is completed. It is headed by Tyler Herrick, president, and Moore’s son, Zach Moore, managing partner.
The Moore family has control of the 18-acres plot where the new hotel will be built, said Herrick. He noted the property is subdivided and “there could be other development there in the future, we’re not sure what.”
He said his company is making good progress with town officials and is already doing a traffic study, “getting ahead of the game,” as far as tackling issues that need to be addressed.
“We’re very encouraged” by the dealings with the town through the process. “Every conversation has been very positive.”
The company’s planning for the project began in January of 2015.
The hotel will have views facing West Mountain. It will be three stories high, “very standardized” and done in accordance with the latest design by Fairfield Inn & Suites. It will have both rooms and suites.
Herrick said there will be an indoor swimming pool and a courtyard outside, off the pool area, for people to use.
There is no restaurant, but there will be a continental breakfast served that will be “more robust” and include some hot dishes prepared from a small kitchen area, Herrick said.
He said a bar area is also under consideration for use by hotel guests. That would be an additional use for the continental breakfast area.
The target client is business and leisure travelers.
Herrick said, “I feel there are definitely accommodations in our area but we’re lacking some quality. A lot of the rooms haven’t been updated. What we’re going to do will be run by our company and held to a high standard. And the Marriott brand comes with that. A lot of the hotels around here haven’t been updated.”
Clients will have easy access to the Northway going to Saratoga Race Course in the summer, as well as Lake George. West Mountain is nearby “we hope there will be snowmobilers” using the hotel in the winter, he said.
He said the rooms will be more economical than many of the high-end hotels in the region, while still supplying desirable and modern amenities.
“There is a lot of traffic on the Northway with people going to Montreal, New York City and all over. ” The hotel will be visible from the Northway and that will help attract travelers, he said.
Spruce Hospitality has already met with town officials and gotten the necessary variances for the project. The financing is starting to come together. “We’re already along the road on those things,” said Herrick.
There is “one more blessing” needed from Marriott and one more from the town, he said, and then construction will start.
“We hope to be building by he end of the summer or early fall,” said Herrick. “In a perfect scenario, we will be welcoming guests in July 2017, maybe August.”
There are vagaries in the construction business including unpredictably of the weather, so he acknowledged the opening could be pushed into the fall of 2017.
Also being planned is a Hilton Home2Suites on Corinth Road, near Exit 18, by Bhvik Jariwala, a developer who is building another Hilton facility in Glenville.
And there are plans filed with the town by Gerard Nudi to build a Holiday In Express on Corinth Road.
Those two projects are also, at this point, eyed for 2017 opening, according to town documents. Nudi and Jariwala could not be reached for comment.