JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council will hold its monthly voting session tonight in City Hall with several items on the agenda, including a $350,000 loan to help with the renovation of a downtown hotel.
Lawmakers will review the Jobs and Privates Investment loan from the Jamestown Local Development Corporation, which if approved would be given to the Hamister Group so it can complete renovation work on the former Ramada Inn on the corner of Fourth and Washington Streets. The loan would total $350,000 and would have to be paid back over a ten-year period at 4.25 percent interest. Because the JLDC loan is greater than $100,000 it must also be approved by the city council.
The loan is just one of several that will be used by the Hamister Group to renovate the building. According to the Post-Journal, the group will also receive an additional $1.5 million in loans from the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency, The Western Region Corporation Downtown Revitalization Loan Fund, and the Greater Jamestown Zone Capitol Corporation. The total renovation project for the downtown hotel is estimated to be more than $14 million.
An an artist rendering of the proposed DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Jamestown.
In 2013 the Hamister Group purchased the building at auction and the following year it announced a franchise agreement with Doubletree by Hilton, with a plan of turning the former Ramada into a 146-room, full-service hotel and restaurant with 4,000 sq/ft of banquet and meeting space.
Initially the group had said it would open the hotel under the new franchise in the summer of 2015. However, unanticipated delays brought forward from the State DEC meant that Hamister would have additional unexpected renovation costs that pushed the schedule back. In addition, the group was also focused on opening another hotel in Niagara Falls – which reportedly contributed to the delay. With the additional funding for the project, the Hamister Group now says work is expected to be completed by summer 2017.
Tonight’s city council voting session begins at 7:30 p.m. in council chambers and is open to the public.
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