Bhavik Jariwala, on behalf of Dual Development, LLC — the company that’s behind the rebranding and rebuilding of the former Quality Inn — is applying for a Restore NY grant to do a “full renovation down to the sheetrock” in the remaining streetside portion of the former hotel. Jariwala is applying for full funding for the project, which he said is estimated to cost around $700,000, through Empire State Development’s Restore NY grant program.

But residents and owners/operators of local hotels — including the Crowne Plaza Lake Placid, the Golden Arrow, Whiteface Club and Resort, and Wildwood on the Lake — don’t believe Jariwala should receive more public funding to rebuild and rehabilitate the for-profit hotel, which won $3 million in state funding in 2019.

The town council held a required public hearing this past Wednesday before unanimously voting to approve a resolution of support for the application on Thursday. Most of the seven people who spoke at the public hearing — barring a general contractor who asked how he could bid on the rehab project — opposed the town’s support of the grant application. The town also fielded at least six written comments opposing or critiquing the town’s support for the application.

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Hotel rooms at the former Quality Inn’s streetside building on Saranac Avenue are seen this past Wednesday. The hotel’s developer wants to renovate the rooms and turn them into housing for hotel workers and local workers. (Enterprise photo — Lauren Yates)

Workforce housing

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The new project would provide 13 new workforce housing units, which Jariwala hopes could help supplement the area’s lack of affordable housing. Jariwala said that approximately half of the units would be used to house hotel staff — which he expects to be primarily workers on J-1 student visas — while the other half could be used for people who work anywhere in Lake Placid. Each unit, which would include two beds and a kitchenette, could house up to two people. Lisa Nagle, who’s working with Jariwala to submit the grant application, said the units would only house people who make 80% of the Area Median Income — which is around $49,000 in Essex County, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — or below.

“We feel like this is our way to support the community and its needs,” Jariwala said.

Jariwala said each of the 13 rooms — which he called “micro-apartments” — would be fully renovated and stocked with a full-sized refrigerator, a kitchenette with a microwave, a desk, a dresser with drawers, AC units, and new televisions, beds and furniture. The former hotel lobby would be converted into a common area for tenants, including a full-sized kitchen and a lounge area with a foosball table.

But many people who opposed the town’s support for the project said they don’t believe the 13 housing units would do much to serve the local workforce, with others — including Art Lussi, co-owner of the Crowne Plaza — saying that the housing should be available for any local worker.

Some people said they’re concerned that having residential units at the former hotel could further disturb the peaceful resort atmosphere on Paradox Bay, which they say has already been disturbed over the last couple of years as the former Quality Inn was demolished and a new building was constructed in its place. A few people thought that any future tenants of the workforce housing units should abide by hotel rules and keep early bedtime hours to help keep the peace.

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“It’s not been quiet for three years”

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Comments opposing support for Jariwala’s application often strayed from the application itself. The plans for the Quality Inn rebuild have changed several times since they were first raised in 2019, and now, some people are concerned that the new project could also end up being different than promised. Others, like the owners of the neighboring Wildwood on the Lake, expressed exhaustion at the years-long demolition and construction of the former hilltop inn.

Stuart Hemsley, whose family — the Webers — owns and operates Wildwood, detailed long days filled with trucks loading materials in and out of the construction site, a blasting schedule that carried on during the busy season and construction hours that he believes often exceeded the town and village’s construction noise ordinance.

“It’s not been quiet for three years,” Hemsley said.

Many people were frustrated that Jariwala got $3 million in state funding to rebuild the hotel with plans to open it ahead of the 2023 World University Games — the hotel is not yet open — and that the new iteration of the hotel, which will be branded as a Cambria hotel, is taller than the 35-foot height limit in the town and village. While the Zoning Board of Appeals denied Jariwala’s request to increase the hotel’s height to 53 feet, the Adirondack Park Agency — whose jurisdiction supersedes the zoning board’s — approved the height variance last year. The hotel rebuild also got approval from the Lake Placid-North Elba Review Board.

“I think our planning board has already made one mistake on this overbuilt, out of character and who is advertising his property as a lake shore resort,” Lake Placid resident Adele Connors wrote. “It is insulting to the character of our community. As much as we need workforce housing, do not let this guy pull the wool over our eyes again.”

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Funding opportunities

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Several people who opposed the town board’s support for Jariwala’s grant application said they don’t believe his proposed project fits the bill of requisites for a Restore NY grant, which is intended to fund the rehabilitation or reconstruction of “vacant, abandoned, condemned or surplus buildings,” according to the program’s website. Jariwala estimated the streetside Quality Inn building, which is currently housing construction workers and guests, to be around 50 to 60 years old. He said the building is “quite outdated.”

People also felt that Jariwala was receiving “special treatment” from the town by getting support for another round of state funding, with many local hoteliers pointing out that there are several hotel employers in town who’d love to get grant funding to create workforce housing.

“I’d love to provide some housing for our staff if we could, and with free money that would be easy,” Hemsley said.

Mark Sperling, the CEO of Whiteface Club Companies, said the Whiteface Club and Resort invested more than $1 million in building employee housing several years ago “without seeking any handouts.” Businesses all face the same challenges, he wrote, adding that “public financial support should be conducted on a level playing field.”

“If the town feels it is appropriate to help fund this (Dual Development) project, in addition to the funds already provided by the state, then it is only appropriate that the town procure funds to reimburse the Whiteface Club and Resort, as well as any other businesses that have been required to borrow funds or utilize capital reserves for the purpose of providing employee housing,” Sperling wrote.

Town councilors said they could support up to two grant applications for this round of Restore NY grants, but Jariwala was the only person in the town to apply.

Lake Placid resident Don Scammell called the town’s support for the grant application a “slap in the face” to generations of local hoteliers, who he said have given back to the community with land and financial donations. The Lussi family donated the land where the MacKenzie Overlook, an income-based housing development, now sits on Wesvalley Road.

“Many of us have built affordable housing without the state’s support,” Lussi wrote.

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Quick business

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People also felt slighted that they didn’t hear about Jariwala’s plans for the streetside building, his intent to apply for the grant — which town councilors said they first heard about this past November — or the public hearing for the town’s support of the application until a couple of days before the hearing was held on Wednesday. Some also took issue with the time of the hearing — 3:20 p.m. — because it fell in the middle of a regular workday.

A public notice for the public hearing was published in the Enterprise on Saturday, Jan. 21, four days before the hearing on Wednesday. On Wednesday night, the town scheduled a special meeting for 4 p.m. Thursday to discuss and vote on its resolution of support for the grant application, which passed unanimously. During the board’s discussion on Thursday, councilors agreed that the controversy over the grant application was an educational experience for them. They all said that they’d try to improve communications about grant opportunities and notice any future letters of intent from grant applicants to residents and businesses in the area.