The rendering looks OK. It's a bit "meh" for me and also a bit big (Armory Square tends to be mostly condensed 2 to 3 story buildings). But when you take into account the adjacent 6 and 7 story buildings located on this block, The Warehouse and Washington Station, and other similar sized ones in the "Power District", the Niagara Mowhawk Building and the Federal Building, it's going to visually blend them into and out of Armory Square fairly well. At least, way better than a surface parking lot.
And this is one big surface parking lot.
Funny how Washington Station, the building at the right, has all this unique siding and glass on its south facade. The part that will be most visual to the public now is that drab, gray wall that faces east. The new hotel will allow some window interaction from the private (inside) to the public (outside) and it's also scaled to the pedestrian fairly well; something that Washington Station clearly does poorly.
The Syracuse Industrial Development Agency has granted the project a 15-year full tax abatement. That applies to the actual hotel and not the parcel of land. 15 years is a bit extreme, especially considering that the city needs every bit of tax money that it can get right now, but juxtapose that with the fact that this corner of land (a surface parking lot mere steps away from the city's most pedestrian-friendly neighborhood) could easily sit empty for 15 years.
If all goes as planned, we'll see some much needed visual continuity of the surrounding blocks, a building welcoming you into the neighborhood rather than an empty lot, and something that piggybacks on the success of Armory Square.
And really, any day where Downtown has one less surface parking lot is a good day.
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