(NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO) -- Not generally known for constructing skyscraper hotels, the 1,000-room, 53-story, $137 million Hilton Hotel & Suites--Niagara Falls Fallsview is turning heads after selling all 240 suites during a soft opening of its new tower.
The tower formally opens in late June and expands the existing hotel on Fallsview Boulevard. It was initially planned as a 58-story tower, but was scaled back.
"I think it was really just cost at the end of the day," says Anthony Annunziata, vice president for marketing and development for Hilton Niagara Falls Fallsview. "It made sense at 53, and we didn't actually need to go to 58."
Annunziata says the building is the tallest hotel in Canada and is taller than all but nine hotels in the U.S. The new tower, which eclipses the HSBC Center in Buffalo, NY by 15 stories, is also the tallest building between Toronto and New York City
The Hilton Fallsview is attached to the Fallsview Casino Resort, near the Horseshoe Falls.
Across the border in Niagara Falls, N. Y., the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel is the tallest building at 26 stories.
The new tower doubled the number of rooms in the Hilton from about 500 to 1,000, and added two new restaurants, including a 375-seat Romano's Macaroni Grill. A Brazilian steakhouse will open next month
The Hilton opened 240 of the tower's suites on Friday, May 22, and sold all of them the first night, Annunziata says. Additional suites will continue to open in the tower throughout the next month. Each suite features a sitting room with a fireplace.
"We'll be bringing more online every day," Annunziata says.
A second phase of the Hilton expansion project will include 40,000 square feet of conference and meeting space and a 40,000-square-foot "themed recreational pool" and spa. The second phase is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2012.
The Hilton hotel complex is owned by Hospitality Resorts, founded by Vincent DiCosimo Sr.
"I have to tell you, we're very proud of the very committed and very aggressive private sector," says Niagara Falls Mayor Ted Salci. "The DiCosimo family epitomizes what has happened since Niagara Falls has taken advantage of the introduction of casino gaming in 1996."
Salci says city leaders have carefully crafted local laws that address building heights in recent years to protect views of the falls and the iconic nature of the Skylon Tower, while still allowing for new development to take place.
To build to 53 stories, the Hilton paid about $1.25 million in fees that will be used toward the construction of a $37 million, four-rink public ice complex scheduled to open next year, Salci says.
However, the Hilton might not remain the tallest in the city for long.
Salci says the city will consider an application in June for a proposed 57-story building from an undisclosed developer. The city also has approved five applications for new hotels of various heights that have yet to be built.
Leave a comment