What is the rush? I do not understand why Buffalo continues to push for a new hotel in the Waterfront Village, next to Shanghai Red’s, in this terrible economy.

Smith Travel Research, a nationally recognized hotel occupancy survey company, rates Buffalo hotel occupancy at only 51 percent. Already coming on line in Buffalo are the Embassy Suites Hotel in Delaware Avenue’s former federal office building, the Seneca Nation’s already started 500-room casino hotel, as well as the new hotels recently opened, or about to open, near the airport and on Transit Road. Why penalize existing hotels with more competition, many of which have been providing hundreds of jobs and paying local taxes for decades?

The proposed site is the last and most valuable undeveloped city-owned land. Waterfront Village provides the highest taxes per acre in Buffalo. By the time the economy and existing hotel occupancy rates firm up, there may be better uses for this valuable site.

The proposed developer, Specialty Restaurants of California, has a very poor record here. Its Flying Tigers and Crawdaddy’s restaurants were so mismanaged that they are no longer in existence. So what is the rush? Please stop this unneeded hotel now.

Sergio Fornasiero

Williamsville