Campus Hotel Opens After Years of Controversy, Delays

After a lawsuit, construction and one final delay thanks to the February blizzard, the $30 million Hilton Garden Inn on the Stony Brook University campus has finally opened.

An ongoing story in the Stony Brook community, its original plans were mired in legal proceedings via a 2009 lawsuit brought by the Stony Brook Environmental Conservancy. In October of 2010, however, a judge lifted the restraining order that had blocked the developer from clearing the trees on the lot. Students at the university later protested the specific location of the hotel, saying the wooded lot should be preserved.

In 2011, the original start date for construction was pushed back from April 1 to the last week of July. The hotel was about 65-percent complete in September of last year as construction progressed through 2012. The hotel was ready to reach its projected February 2013 date, but not before one last road block; this time from mother nature.

"Our opening was slowed about five or six days because of the blizzard unfortunately," said Jeannine Lang, Director of Sales at the hotel. "Thirty inches of snow is a hard thing to move. We were waiting to get our COs [Certificates of Occupancy] and things like that. Because the roads weren’t passable they couldn’t get in, so it did slow it down a bit but not that much."

With all of that in the rear view mirror, the brand new hotel is opened and has already begun bringing in guests and even groups. The five-story hotel is part of Hilton's brand new "Project Grow" and offers 135 guest rooms, a heated pool, a whirlpool and a state-of-the-art fitness room.

Non-guests can also enjoy a restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner along with high speed internet and more than 4,000 square-feet of meeting space, among other amenities. With other hotels already established in the area, the Hilton Garden Inn will look to differentiate itself from the competition.

"We’re all concerned about competition but we’re all situated in a different area and we all go after different pieces of business," Lang said. "Obviously if we’re located on the university property we’re going to go after as much university and hospital business as possible. But they also do use the other hotels as well because they have been here a long time."

With about $30 million invested in the hotel, according to Lang, the Hilton Garden Inn has been working hard getting the word out that they are open by hitting the road and sending out email blasts.

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