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Lake Placid hotel changes chain in redevelopment plan

LAKE PLACID — The Quality Inn on Saranac Avenue will be converted to a Cambria-brand hotel rather than a Homewood Suites and Tru-branded hotel.

Developers of the Lake Placid hotel appeared before the North Elba-Lake Placid Joint Review Board on Wednesday, April 21 to ask the board to amend its past approval of their project to reflect the new branding.

Cambria is part of the Choice Hotels group, which also includes the Quality, Comfort, Sleep, Clarion, Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn brands. Homewood Suites and Tru are part of the Hilton brand family.

Cambria touts itself on its website as offering “upscale essentials for the modern traveler,” highlighting “little indulgences” such as bars with local craft beers, menus with local flavors and spa-inspired bathrooms.

The developers’ plans for the hotel building itself remain almost identical to before, with the exception of the location of the front entry and porte-cochere, which would be moved slightly to the east.

The hotel would still have 191 rooms — some long-stay, some short-stay — according to Bhavik Jariwala, a partner at Dual Development LLC, the company behind this hotel rebuild.

Jariwala told the board that the goal would still be to have the hotel open by the 2023 World University Games.

The reason behind the brand change was “setbacks” brought by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a letter from the developer submitted to the review board.

This project was awarded $3 million in state funding through the Regional Economic Development Council awards in 2019. The developer also asked the town of North Elba for additional tax breaks last year, which the town council denied. Jariwala has said in the past that this would be a $35 million rebuild, and he indicated on Wednesday that the project’s timeline would depend on funding.

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