It’s a landmark for drivers passing Batavia on the Thruway – the Quality Inn & Suites, with its Palm Island Indoor Waterpark.
Now the former Clarion Hotel is about to get a big makeover that will not only renovate and upgrade the water park, but also result in splitting the facility into two separate hotels, in hopes of attracting more guests.
Rudra Mgmt – which acquired the hotel property three years ago – wants to renovate the water park hotel at 8250 Park Road in the Town of Batavia, converting the 196-room Quality Inn into a 99-room Holiday Inn and a 68-unit Candlewood Suites, for a total of 167 rooms, according to the Genesee County Economic Development Center. Both chains are under IHG Hotels and Resorts, with Candlewood as an extended-stay brand.
Plans call for combining some rooms to create suites, while renovating all of the rooms and suites with new bathrooms, kitchens, ceilings, walls, furniture and fixtures, said CEO Jayesh Patel. Rudra will also upgrade the event and public space, while shrinking the large lobby and relocating it to the center of the facility. “We are putting a smaller, modern-style lobby, so the existing lobby space will be added to the meeting and banquet space,” Patel said.
As a result, Rudra will expand the banquet space from just under 11,000 square feet to 17,000 square feet, with four rooms of different sizes instead of just two. Currently, Patel said, the event space is “not in the best of shape, so we haven’t been renting it,” but he expects that to change after renovations are complete.
“We put a temporary pause to it, because who wants to do their event in a junk space?” he said. But “Batavia being the center of Buffalo and Rochester, there’s a lot of interest, that’s for sure.”
Finally, Rudra will make cosmetic and mechanical improvements to the water park, which is currently open only limited hours but would be available much more after the renovation and promoted as a weekend destination. The hotel’s restaurant previously closed.
This is the second time Rudra has proposed the project. It brought an almost identical project forward in 2022, valued at $12.5 million, and won tax breaks from GCEDC, but couldn’t finalize the financing.
“We could not close with the bank, so that’s why the project was delayed,” said Rudra Director of Finance Anil Dholakia, who is also managing member and co-owner of the limited-liability company pursuing the hotel project.
The $8.5 million project would result in 15 new full-time equivalent jobs, at salaries of $30,000 to $40,000, in addition to retaining 20 existing jobs, while sharply boosting the property’s assessed value from $3.5 million to $9.2 million.
And it’s expected to generate $123,704 in annual bed tax revenue for the county, plus $11 million in payroll and other tax revenues.
Rudra and its affiliate, 8250 Park Rd LLC, which is 25% owned by Patel and 15% by Dholakia, are asking for just over $1.2 million in tax breaks from the GCEDC, which is that county’s industrial development agency. That includes $884,472 in property tax relief over 10 years, $267,200 in sales tax breaks and a $50,000 mortgage-recording tax exemption.
GCEDC noted that the project is considered “retail” in nature under state IDA law, as more than one-third of the project would be for services to customers who visit in person. But the agency also asserted that “the project is likely to attract a significant number of visitors from outside the region, and therefore the project constitutes a tourism destination” under state law.
“The project will contribute to a livable community by providing valuable services to support our tourism industry at a gateway location to the city and town of Batavia,” according to a GCEDC project summary.
Costs include $3.5 million for the 8.7-acre site and existing 125,000-square-foot building, $2.9 million for the renovation costs and $2 million in equipment purchases. The project will be funded with a $5 million mortgage from Canal Bank that is expected to close next month and $3.5 million in developer equity.
The developers hope to start work by December and finish after 10 months, by November 2026.
Rudra and Rosewood Hotels, both owned by Patel, and an affiliated company based in Buffalo and Minneapolis, Empire Hotel Group, own more than 55 hotels in seven states, including 28 in Western New York. The companies have been on an acquisition spree in recent years, including in Western New York, where the company has acquired the M Hotel in Cheektowaga, the LaQuinta and Red Roof hotels in Batavia, and three in suburban Buffalo.
Reach Jonathan D. Epstein at (716) 849-4478 or jepstein@buffnews.com.
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Jonathan D. Epstein
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