ToCasino.net Online Casino

TYRE — The Town Board Thursday went through a process to determine that a proposed new hotel at the del Lago Resort & Casino site would not have a significant negative impact on the environment.

But before they came to that conclusion, following the Part II and III process of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), they heard opposition to the hotel proposal.

Craig Sessler of 3S Gateway Development LLC of Waterloo said he, his brother and sister own land on Route 318 west of Route 414 that they’d like to develop commercially.

“We were strong supporters of the del Lago project as an economic development engine,” Sessler said. He cited things 3S Gateway did to help support the $440 million casino, which opened earlier this year on an 85-acre parcel north of the Thruway on Route 414.

That support included giving an easement on the Petro Travel Center the company is majority owner of, not submitting a traffic plan that might conflict with the casino traffic plan when it was applying for a state license and submitting its own development plan to the State Gaming Commission to bolster the Wilmorite Corp. casino application.

But he said 3S did its own feasibility study of hotel demand at a cost of some $23,000 to form the basis for its own development plan on Route 318. “We wanted to get a sense of how many new hotel rooms would be needed once the casino opened. Wilmorite said they provided 205 rooms, basically as complimentary benefit for guests to encourage them to stay,” Sessler said.

He said here was never any talk of having a second hotel built on the casino site. The Indus Hospitality Group of Rochester is proposing a 150-room hotel to be attached to the rear of the casino, built on an existing parking lot.

“We were told Wilmorite did not want to be in the hotel business. They would let other developers do that. Developers like us. We were asked to support the casino and we did,” Sessler said. “Another hotel in the area, but not on the casino site, was supported by the town’s master plan. We feel a second hotel on the casino site is wrong. A hotel is key to drawing new restaurants, which would also be a part of our development plan.

“Having a hotel on the site would give people less reason to leave the site. We will submit a development plan to the Planning Board next month. But a second hotel on the casino site gives us pause to reconsider whether we can get a return on our investment.

“Hotel rooms are key to getting more development in this area,” he concluded.

The board did not respond. Instead, it was guided through the SEQRA process by attorney Kathleen Bennett of Bond, Schoeneck & King. She went over 10 areas of possible impacts from the Indus Hilton Garden hotel. They were land, geological features, surface water, groundwater, flooding, air, plants and animals, agricultural resources, aesthetic resources and historic and archaeological resources.

Much of the supporting information used to make the negative declaration was based on the 2015-16 SEQRA review for the del Lago project.