Big next step at the Queensbury Hotel

By Mark Frost, Chronicle Editor

The Queensbury Hotel unveiled its $3.8-million expansion and renovation. It introduced the new 5,200 square-foot Adirondack Ballroom that it said can now accommodate 300 to 500 people. It added a banquet kitchen that’s even air-conditioned, an industry rarity. Read much more about it below…

Ed & Zack Moore and Tyler Herrick say big ballroom is key to Queensbury Hotel’s future

By Zander Frost, Chronicle Staff Writer

The mood was celebratory at Thursday’s Queensbury Hotel expansion ribbon cutting.

“You gotta admit, it’s pretty impressive,” owner Ed Moore said. “I’m so proud of this place, so proud of these guys. And this stuff doesn’t just happen. It’s not about me. It’s great people.”

He talked about the whole team that worked on the project and work in the business, plus the public’s support.

Zack Moore said, “We’re just super excited about this project. This is something that we talked about when we first bought the place [in 2016]. Something that Ed Bartholomew himself had said the community needed.”

“It was on our radar to do. And one of the last big things before that rooftop bar that everyone talks about,” he added.

Zack Moore, who is Ed’s son, and hotel general manager Tyler Herrick are partners in Spruce Hospitality, which manages the Queensbury and other properties.

Mr. Herrick said he and the Moores discussed this expansion seven years ago.

“Not only renovating everything and bringing it back to life, but to add a space like this to really give something to the community where they can hold large events,” Mr. Herrick said.

He said the now enlarged Adirondack Ballroom is crucial to year round viability of the hotel and hotels generally.

He said he learned at the Sagamore Resort, during his years as second-in-command to Tom Guay, that “shoulder seasons” depend on “big state conferences, trade shows…that bring business in on Sunday, Monday and Tuesdays, and then they leave on a Wednesday.”

He said after their first four years, the Queensbury is “almost full every single weekend. But we still couldn’t get to that magic number of that 60% occupancy.”

“This is going to really get us over that hump,” he said.

The expansion is already off to the races. Their first event was hosting the New York State police chiefs association, bringing in more than 300 people.

Mr. Herrick said, “They have a complete buy-out of this hotel, they’re taking 50 rooms tonight at the Fairfield [which Ed Moore also owns and Spruce Hospitality manages] plus we actually had to contract rooms at the Holiday Inn Express for them as well.”

Ed Moore said this and other bookings created an urgency to finish the project.

Likening it to a wedding booked long in advance, he said, “You got 400 people coming. And I call you up two weeks before and say [you] can’t get married. You can’t call these people up, two weeks, two months before and say this isn’t happening.”

He said the ballroom expansion and new banquet kitchen are an economic engine that took precedence over the rooftop bar that so many people crave, including the partners themselves.

Ed Moore said other than the Sagamore and a few other spots, “there’s really not big places where you can have 350 at a wedding, a 500-seat convention. So I had them do the economics…The money was here that could support that.”

Mr. Moore said the improvements can make the rooftop bar possible.

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