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Destiny USA hotel names Hilton partner, still needs to meet construction hiring requirement

Destiny USA blog.
Destiny USA hotel under construction.

Destiny USA announced that they are partnering with Embassy Suites by Hilton on the 200-room hotel that's been under construction in the Inner Harbor since June. A 12-year, $7 million tax deal was granted to the Destiny hotel by the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency earlier this year.

Community benefits included in the tax deal require that 15 percent of the 200 construction jobs on the hotel go to women and minority-owned businesses. Destiny USA’s David Aitken said while the company has not hit that target yet, they still intend to.

“We live here, we work here, we understand what the goals are and we’re very much working to achieve the goals,” Aitken said. "We're about five months in and we have 11 months more. We've made some good progress and tracking well in that regard, working with our construction manager Hueber-Breuer in both doing outreach and securing people to work on the job."

Not meeting that objective would result in a $75,000 penalty to the county development agency. Aitken said they also plan to reach a requirement of 50 percent local hires for the 70 permanent jobs that will be created. That comes with a $200,000 penalty if it is not met. Aitken said tourism is up at Destiny. This year group tours came from 16 different countries. The hotel is intended to have visitors stay longer at the venue and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2017.

Tom Magnarelli is a reporter covering the central New York and Syracuse area. He joined WRVO as a freelance reporter in 2012 while a student at Syracuse University and was hired full time in 2015. He has reported extensively on politics, education, arts and culture and other issues around central New York.