The Development Chenango Corporation is moving ahead with plans to attract developers to transform 14-16 S. Broad St. into a boutique hotel. The agency says the building has potential for 45 rooms, a restaurant and a conference area, and could possibly be completed within the next two years. (Photo by Shawn Magrath)

NORWICH - The Development Chenango Corporation (DCC), the economic development arm of Commerce Chenango, says downtown Norwich could see a boutique hotel by 2023 if all goes accordingly.

Just one month after the agency announced a purchase agreement for 14-16 S. Broad St., former home to the SUNY Morrisville Norwich campus, Commerce Chenango President and CEO Kerri Green said there’s already been interest from developers to overhaul the building to suit overnight accomodations, meaning Commerce Chenango’s years-long effort to root a quality hotel in Norwich could quickly take off when DCC closes on the building next month.

The building, with ownership downstate, has been largely vacant for more than a decade. The only current occupant is a custom print shop business on the first floor, which DCC has no intentions of evicting. 

Green said the undertaking is a positive step forward for the city and the county at large, which is currently losing money to travelers who find lodging outside the county in nearby Hamilton, Oneonta, or Binghamton. Establishing a hotel has been a blip on the radar for DCC and Commerce Chenango since DCC released an accommodations study in 2014 affirming a long-held notion that the lack of quality lodging in Chenango is putting the county at an economic disadvantage.