County to look at supply and demand of overnight accommodations
CHENANGO COUNTY – The Development Chenango Corporation (DCC), a nonprofit partner organization of Commerce Chenango, is moving forward with a study that will provide numbers for the supply and demand of overnight accommodations in the county.
Administrators of DCC met with the Chenango County Planning and Economic Development Committee last week seeking $9,000 from the county’s capital project account for infrastructure and promotion of business development. Money will be used to survey the number of adequate hotel, motel and bed and breakfast accommodations available throughout the county. DCC insists that the current lack of quality accommodations is having a negative impact on the local economy and it’s time to explore opportunities for better lodging.
“There is a tremendous need for better accommodations and more of them,” said Steve Craig, Commerce Chenango President and CEO. “We’re seeing that it’s a limiting factor in all sorts of ways from tourism to business development.”
According to DCC, Chenango County’s shortage of accommodations means business travelers are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for rooms in neighboring Broome, Madison and Otsego counties.
Said Craig, “It is looking more and more like a serious leakage in our economy that may be remedied by encouraging a developer to build a hotel or motel.”
DCC proposed contracting with Susan M. Payne, a community and economic development consultant located in nearby Endwell in Broome County. The partnership will provide DCC and Chenango County representatives with a professional overview of lodging in the area and suggest ways to fill the gap between supply and demand.
DCC administrators told the county’s planning committee that the undertaking may yield opportunities to attract private hotel and motel developers in the future.
“It is up to us as a county to collect that data and push it out there to get some interest in development,” added Craig. “We already know that there is a demand for hotels. We are trying to analyze what it is, what we have and how to make up the difference.”
A similar survey was conducted in Chenango County in 2008 but according to DCC, information from that survey is now outdated. Businesses including Raymond, Chobani, NBT, Golden Artist Colors and Frontier Communications have grown since then, resulting in increased business travelers. Additionally, successful local events like the summertime Blues Fest and Gus Macker basketball tournament are being restricted in growth due to the lack of accommodations for visitors, said Craig.
A New York State consolidated funding application is currently available to municipalities that can assist hotel projects, but 2015 may be the last year it’s available. The DCC says it needs data to apply for regional funding in the future and while it can’t promise results of the survey will attract a private developer, the proposal has the support of many local officials.
“I think this is something that really is needed,” said City of Norwich Supervisor Robert Jeffrey. “We are missing out on a lot of travelers who are staying in Binghamton or in Hamilton and other communities that are adjacent to us, and those communities are benefiting from our lack of accommodations. We are crippling ourselves economically.”
A motion to provide DCC with $9,000 to contract with Susan M. Payne was approved unanimously by the Chenango Committee for Planning and Economic Development. Pending additional costs of the study are to be footed by DCC, which hopes to have the project completed by the end of July.
Administrators of DCC met with the Chenango County Planning and Economic Development Committee last week seeking $9,000 from the county’s capital project account for infrastructure and promotion of business development. Money will be used to survey the number of adequate hotel, motel and bed and breakfast accommodations available throughout the county. DCC insists that the current lack of quality accommodations is having a negative impact on the local economy and it’s time to explore opportunities for better lodging.
“There is a tremendous need for better accommodations and more of them,” said Steve Craig, Commerce Chenango President and CEO. “We’re seeing that it’s a limiting factor in all sorts of ways from tourism to business development.”
According to DCC, Chenango County’s shortage of accommodations means business travelers are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for rooms in neighboring Broome, Madison and Otsego counties.
Said Craig, “It is looking more and more like a serious leakage in our economy that may be remedied by encouraging a developer to build a hotel or motel.”
DCC proposed contracting with Susan M. Payne, a community and economic development consultant located in nearby Endwell in Broome County. The partnership will provide DCC and Chenango County representatives with a professional overview of lodging in the area and suggest ways to fill the gap between supply and demand.
DCC administrators told the county’s planning committee that the undertaking may yield opportunities to attract private hotel and motel developers in the future.
“It is up to us as a county to collect that data and push it out there to get some interest in development,” added Craig. “We already know that there is a demand for hotels. We are trying to analyze what it is, what we have and how to make up the difference.”
A similar survey was conducted in Chenango County in 2008 but according to DCC, information from that survey is now outdated. Businesses including Raymond, Chobani, NBT, Golden Artist Colors and Frontier Communications have grown since then, resulting in increased business travelers. Additionally, successful local events like the summertime Blues Fest and Gus Macker basketball tournament are being restricted in growth due to the lack of accommodations for visitors, said Craig.
A New York State consolidated funding application is currently available to municipalities that can assist hotel projects, but 2015 may be the last year it’s available. The DCC says it needs data to apply for regional funding in the future and while it can’t promise results of the survey will attract a private developer, the proposal has the support of many local officials.
“I think this is something that really is needed,” said City of Norwich Supervisor Robert Jeffrey. “We are missing out on a lot of travelers who are staying in Binghamton or in Hamilton and other communities that are adjacent to us, and those communities are benefiting from our lack of accommodations. We are crippling ourselves economically.”
A motion to provide DCC with $9,000 to contract with Susan M. Payne was approved unanimously by the Chenango Committee for Planning and Economic Development. Pending additional costs of the study are to be footed by DCC, which hopes to have the project completed by the end of July.
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