Sign In
Upcoming Event
Free Newsletter
Building materials firm has $18.7M plans for condemned Brooks Ave. hotel property
Syracuse-based Erie Materials intends to demolish the condemned hotel property at 911 Brooks Ave. and build a new warehouse and showroom. (Photo by Kevin Oklobzija)
Syracuse-based Erie Materials intends to demolish the condemned hotel property at 911 Brooks Ave. and build a new warehouse and showroom. (Photo by Kevin Oklobzija)
Building materials firm has $18.7M plans for condemned Brooks Ave. hotel property
Listen to this articleA Syracuse-based distributor of exterior building materials intends to expand into Rochester by demolishing the long-vacant hotel at Brooks Avenue and Interstate 390 and constructing a new warehouse and showroom.
Erie Materials, a family owned company founded in 1973, is seeking $1.7 million in tax incentives from the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency to assist with the property purchase, asbestos abatement and demolition of the existing 180-room hotel.
The $18.7 million project would revive the condemned 10.8-acre parcel at 911 Brooks Ave., which was built as a Holiday Inn in 1975 and has been shuttered and fenced off since a lender foreclosed on the property in 2020.
Access Point Financial said the hotel operator, F.M. Butt Hotels Corp., owed nearly $7.8 million. The lender submitted the only bid at a foreclosure auction in January of 2020.
At least one redevelopment plan was proposed to the town of Gates for a hotel, restaurant and more on the site in 2023, but it eventually was scrapped.
Costs of remediation and demolition — in the neighborhood of $6 to $7 million — are a big reason why others haven’t moved on the property, according to the funding application submitted to COMIDA by Stephen Chabot, Erie Materials vice president.
“This location has been vacant due to these risks and upfront cash outlay, which other developers have been unwilling to undertake,” the application says.
Erie Materials is asking for a $768,000 sales tax exemption, a $97,500 mortgage recording tax exemption and a 10-year PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) worth $842,764.
A public hearing is set for 11 a.m. on June 11 at Gates Town Hall. The COMIDA board will vote on the proposal at the June 16 meeting.
The Gates Planning Board has given final approval on project plans and the town will apply the previously awarded $2 million Restore New York Communities Initiative grant for the property to offset project costs, according to the COMIDA application.
If the incentives are approved by COMIDA, Erie Materials will build a 49,000-square-foot warehouse and 13,000 facility for a showroom and office.
The company distributes residential and commercial roofing supplies, windows, doors, siding, decking and seamless gutters.
Along with its home base of Syracuse, Erie Materials has locations in Albany, Auburn, Binghamton, Elmira, Poughkeepsie, Utica and Watertown, plus two in Pennsylvania (Scranton and Williamsport).
The company has more than 400 employees.
[email protected]/(585) 653-4020
s
