February 25, 2024

At The Docks LLC (“The Docks”)

We are excited to share our vision with you!

Since the purchase of the dilapidated hotel and marina property on W. River Street, Ogdensburg, we’ve carefully been planning enhancements.  This takes much planning and resources.  

The marina docks have unfortunately suffered from neglect over the years under previous ownership, leading to various issues and deterioration. However, we began rectifying situations by implementing much-needed repairs and enhancements to ensure the safety and functionality of the marina and we are continuing to do so.  A new boardwalk is planned (with lighting, CCTV, fencing and utilities), separate from the existing boardwalk along the marina wall, which will provide additional safety and security measures.

We have also been developing plans to address the state of the dilapidated hotel. We all know Ogdensburg could use lodging inside the city and along the St. Lawrence River is an excellent location for this.  The benefits of this project include job creation (full time, and year-round positions), increased tax revenue for the city, community revitalization, improving blighted and underutilized areas and increased neighboring property values.  We’ve secured a franchise agreement with Wyndham Hotels.  Construction planning holdbacks have been with environmental concerns, addressing whether we build new or use some of the existing structure, and the usual concerns when developing a property. 

Please take a moment to browse through the photos to see how we envision what the property will look like. We’ve included the hotel, some mixed used commercial and residential units as well as housing and a streetscape to provide a walk through area for shoppers, visitors and local residents to enjoy.  

The hotel project and surrounding buildings necessitate the use of all existing parking spaces available on-site, including additional parking we have planned.  We cannot continue to store the marine docks  (plus additional maintenance equipment) during the winter months in the current parking lot once the hotel is built as we have in the last couple of years.  We have been in negotiations with the City of Ogdensburg to purchase 17 Main Street as far back as 2019.   For reasons already stated by the city officials the latest RFP negotiation process was never completed after several attempts to fulfill our request.  

With all of this being said, due to the weight/size of the docks and general logistics of transporting them we have been trying to secure the neighboring property for storage.  This is necessary as transporting the docks would require additional equipment and incur unnecessary costs, which is not within our current plan.  Our intention is to build a storage & maintenance facility that will also house an office as well as provide an aesthetically pleasing structure to hide the sight of the docks during winter months.  Our vision is to create a vibrant waterfront destination and to foster a sense of community and connection to the surrounding area.  The acquisition of this property is essential to the redevelopment of 119 W River St and we cannot move forward without it.  This property is additionally needed for the staging of construction materials as we continue to work at the marina, restaurant and rehabilitation of the other buildings.

It is our hope the City will maintain their legal commitment by continuing to honor the agreement already in place for the sale of 17 Main Street, Parcel B, to help make our vision a reality.  Our commitment to the city is to construct the facility within an 18 month timeframe from the date of acquisition.  We are committed to Ogdensburg and the surrounding community.  We are a family owned business and long term residents of the area that continue to try and make Ogdensburg a better place to live and to work.

Stay tuned as we work diligently on revitalizing this property to bring new life and opportunities to our community.  

On a broader note, we also aim to get local businesses and entrepreneurs involved in the next Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) application. We’re eager to engage residents and business owners in forming a committee to pursue successful candidacy for New York State funding. Together, we aspire to continue making positive transformations in Ogdensburg.  Interested parties, please comment or reach out via Facebook or email us at info@atthedocks.com!