The board got its first full look at two hotels and a commercial building for Griffiss Park. Indus Hospitality Group wants to buy 5.9 acres from the city's Industrial Development Agency near the western leg of the Hill and Geiger roads roundabout and split it into three lots. The plan is for a 91-room Home2 Suites by Hilton and a 100-room WoodSpring Suites (an extended-stay brand), both four stories, plus a single-story commercial building of about 9,900 square feet, with roughly a third set aside for a restaurant and the rest for other commercial uses. Indus's vice president of development and the project's engineer from BME Associates, presented. They'd build it in three phases over three to five years, starting with the first hotel in late 2026 or early 2027.

Nothing was decided, because the board is waiting on the state. The board opened a public hearing on the subdivision, and no one from the public came forward to comment. The city was still waiting for comments from the New York State Department of Transportation and the Department of Environmental Conservation. So after the presentation and questions, the board formally tabled all three pieces to take them up at the May meeting. The board also approved its February 3 minutes and noted the upcoming meeting dates, but the hotel project was the only real business of the night.

Most of the questions were about parking, traffic, and fire access. Board members pressed on whether 196 parking spaces would be enough for roughly 200 hotel rooms plus 10,000 square feet of commercial space. The engineer explained the number comes from a "shared parking" calculation built into the code. The code would require 195 spaces and the plan provides 196, including six accessible spaces and 12 EV spaces. On safety, the engineer described a wider entrance for emergencies and an analysis showing a 100-foot fire ladder truck could navigate the site, with 26-foot fire lanes beside each four-story hotel. A full traffic study was on its way to the state.

Four stories means a trip to the Zoning Board, and the three lots are about financing. The two hotels would rise to four stories, taller than the 35-foot, three-story maximum the zoning code allows, so Indus will need an area variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals. As for why the property is being split into three separate parcels rather than kept as one, the answer was financing, since each building gets its own lot. But the company said a "reciprocal easement" would tie the lots together so parking and access are shared across the whole site. One board member noted that another local complex ran into trouble when pieces were sold off without that kind of planning, and the company agreed that's exactly why it's handled up front.

The company keeps what it builds. Indus's representatives leaned on the idea that they don't develop a property and walk away. They own and run their hotels long-term, and said they've never sold one they built. They described their approach to the commercial building the same way. Rather than put up an empty shell, they line up long-term tenants first and they were in no rush, noting that the nearby Air City Lofts still has vacant retail space. The hotels, they said, are the priority, because rooms near the business park are in real demand.