Move over Steve Christie, there will be a new banner flying on the former AM&A's Department Store if developer Rocco Termini and The Hamister Group have their way. The development team has announced that the 117 room hotel in the AM&A's complex is expected to carry the Hilton Garden Inn flag. Downtown has been Hilton-less since Adam's Mark purchased and renamed the Buffalo Hilton in 1998. The recently-opened Embassy Suites in the Avant and the Hampton Inn are members of the Hilton family of hotels.
Hilton Garden Inn is an award-winning, mid-priced brand with 450 hotels in the United States, Canada and Latin America.
In the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study, Hilton Garden Inn achieved the highest ranking in the "Mid-Scale Hotel Chains with Full Service" category for the seventh time (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009) in eight years. The study is based on responses from more than 65,000 business and leisure hotel guests who evaluated 65 different hotel brands in the United States and Canada between May 2008 and June 2009. The brand was 57 points higher than the segment average and led in five out of the seven guest satisfaction index measures that were evaluated.
The Hamister Hospitality Group, Inc. will manage the new hotel and move its front office staff into the building from Williamsville. The company currently manages ten select-service hotels in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The firm was ranked as one of the top 100 hotel management companies in the United States by Hotel & Motel Management magazine, and earned a spot on the Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the country.
Great news!
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This is interesting. Last night on Facebook I responded to someone else regarding the Statler and stated it would be a plus if the Hilton Corp (who purchased the Statler properties) took over the Statler here as a hotel with retail and a Hospitality university as is done at Cornell. Afterall, the Statler provided an in-house booklet each month (I have one from the days of the Central Terminal opening) that prompted best service practices. Could this be an idea worth pursuing, as well?
"it would be a plus if the Hilton Corp ... took over the Statler here as a hotel with retail and a Hospitality university as is done at Cornell... Could this be an idea worth pursuing, as well?"
Since you asked...
All 3 parts of that idea sound very far fetched - Hilton putting a hotel in the Statler (in addition to this one on Main if that happens), retail in the Statler (any retail downtown has very limited potential), and the idea of convincing Hilton to start a new hospitality university in Buffalo.
The best option for the Statler is to do a 100% condo conversion in my opinion.
Something similar was done in San Diego with the historic El Cortez hotel. Essentially, the upper floors are 100% condo units but the retail and banquet facilities are managed by the HOA I think. The revenue for these go into a fund to help subsidize the complex.
Condos, apartments, and a mix of office and retail on the first two floors would be ideal. If a hotel developer saw much hope in this white elephant, it would have been renovated years ago. As is, the rooms and bathrooms are too small and ill-suted to a hotel in the 21st Century. Rebuilding them could cost $200 million with little hope of ever making a profit. Downtown needs a major convention hotel and a new convention center that meets the expectations of business travellers and the Statler should return as a residential anchor for Downtown.
Regarding the Statler, there are only three floors of original hotel rooms remaining. They are various sized rooms on each floor/wing. The walls between smaller rooms have already been demo'd to adjoin them into a more suitable size. It would have to be remade as a "boutique" hotel in order for it to really work. There are corner rooms that are huge even by todays standards.
The rest of the floors that are vacant have been completely demo'd and are pretty much ready for build out.
I agree mixed use is the best use. The 18th floor has already been gutted all the way to the roof and would make killer condos, better views than the Avant hands down.
Good arguements, guys - just tossing ideas out there.
I think this is a great idea. Sometime people don't have enough vision. I realize that we are not a growing area but we have so many architectural gems. The Statler is one of them even though we like to call it a "white elephant" and people want to tear it down. It does need the right owner with the proper funding to bring it back. Who thought we would ever see the AM&A’s building come back when there was talk some years ago about tearing it down to a “shovel ready site”. This was a term we heard way too much in the past and now hopefully we gotten beyond that stage.
We forget that Millard Fillmore's house stood on this site prior to the Statler and we tore that down to build the Statler. If it was done right, this hotel would be a unique property especially with the Statler connection here and Buffalo and Elsworth Statler's mother being buried at Forest Lawn. Look at the interest the FL Wright properties have generated in recent years especially with the reclamation of the entire Martin complex to its original toot print. This property could have a "walk over" to the Convention Center and would be a great draw.