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Developers, officials break ground on Chautauqua Harbor Hotel

OBSERVER Photo by Jimmy McCarthy County Executive Vince Horrigan helps hotel developers Peter Krog and Dave Hart during the ground breaking. Local officials gathered with the developers to celebrate the coming of the $30.8 million Chautauqua Harbor Hotel to Celoron on Monday.

CELORON — Construction is slated next month for the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel as developers Peter Krog and Dave Hart visited Monday to put a shovel into the ground.

Local officials joined Krog and Hart in Celoron to celebrate the coming of the $30.8 million destination hotel. Krog, CEO of Krog Corp., said he’s exited to get going on the project that’s set for construction in two to three weeks.

“Dave and I have two other hotels together … very successful hotels,” Krog said. “They’re destination hotels and this building will be equally as nice as the others — or even better.”

Hart acknowledged how nice the waterfront site looked during the sunny February day. Hart, CEO and president of Hart Hotels, said they’re looking forward to renting out rooms in the spring or summer of 2018.

When they set out to establish their harbor hotels, Hart said they had specific destinations in mind.

“First of all, it has to be a waterfront location, which this is,” he said. “It’s got to be a community that embraces waterfront lifestyle and also the market area. We feel from here, we can not only do some good business in the Jamestown (area), Celoron and locally, but we can also reach into Pennsylvania and Ohio.”

Hart said the hotel will feature over 130 rooms, a ballroom with the capacity for 300 people, a 10,000-12,000 square-foot lakeside patio, indoor and outdoor pools and inside cabana bar, among other amenities.

“This will be a year-round destination hotel. In season of course, we’ll have a lot of tourists and families,” Hart said. “We’ll have a lot of special events, social occasions, business meetings, conferences and we’re making a big bet out of the fact we can keep the hotel busy every day of the year.”

Celoron Mayor Scott Schrecengost said the harbor hotel is a game changer for the village. For a while, they worked to get the 9 acres of waterfront property next to the park moving. The property sat for almost 50 years, he said.

“It’s been a little bit of work to get to this point,” Schrecengost said. “I’m glad Dave and Peter eyed this up and picked it up.”

County Executive Vince Horrigan said it’s one of those days that’s been in the making for a while.

“We’re excited about this. Tourism and hospitality are clearly driving Chautauqua County forward,” he said.

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