Partition Street hotel gears up for late September opening

While most village residents, and anyone passing through on 9W, have witnessed the project’s incremental construction progress, preparations of another kind are going on up the hill at the HITS offices on Main Street. There, Lisa Hantes, director of sales and marketing, is laying the groundwork for operations — hiring sales reps to market the rooms and book the conference center for weddings, corporate retreats, conferences and other special events. They’ve already got their chef, CIA-grad Giuseppe Napoli, but as of a couple weeks ago they were still looking for a general manager for the hotel.

Texas-native Hantes spent the last 12 years at the Bearsville Theater and Bear Cafe, and before that she worked at the Four Seasons in Houston. Now a Saugerties resident, she’s been working for Diamond Mills since Jan. 1 of this year. While other HITS employees like marketing director John Eickman have been involved, for the most part Hantes has been the only Struzzieri employee whose sole job has pertained to Diamond Mills.

As such, she’s had to wear a lot of hats. (She even claimed she’d be bussing tables from time to time, and bragged that she was quite good at it.) The plans were quite detailed, and contractor John Mullen and his crew have served them well, but there are a million finer points that need to be considered and subtly altered as opening day approaches, and this is what Hantes must consider. Everything from minibar selection to television placement matters.

She designed the logo, an ornate but muted “DM” wreathed by a filigree pattern suggesting a wrought iron gate. “Everything about the place from a design perspective was to mimic the Cantine Mill, to pay homage to it, really,” said Hantes.

As the exterior takes shape, this is becoming clear. Aside from the roof, it really does look like a 19th-century mill, spared the ravages of time. Inside, Hantes promises more rugged elegance, with a grand Irish-style bar and iron and wooden barstools.

The 31-room hotel will be “too small in the summer and too big in the winter,” and this is a good thing. All the rooms save one look out on the falls. The windows we see from the road are in the corridor.

The conference center will succeed, said Hantes, because it boasts great views, can accommodate larger groups than any other facility on this side of the river (the Grandview is the nearest of comparable size), and, thanks to flexible partitions and separate rooms, serve corporate clients. These clients, presumably from New York City, should find the rates comparatively low, the location comparatively close, the hotel convenient and the view excellent.

For locals, who have their own beds to sleep in and few conferences to attend, the restaurant will be the draw. Hantes described the fare as “Contemporary American” that will make use of fresh, local ingredients whenever possible, with “approachable” pricing in the dining area and still more approachable pricing if you order food in the bar. The dress code will be loose — she expects to see muddied HITS riders sitting down next to men in suits.

About 100 cars can park on the site, with another 115 across the street in the overflow parking lot. Any additional parking will have to be offsite with shuttles. Though high capacity is part of the draw, Hantes said these sort of events usually involve carpooling, so parking capacity will not be a frequent issue. They’ll be hiring traffic directors for large events as well, and this should minimize the slow-down for other motorists.