Panel Cites Financial Flaws in Ellis Island Hotel Plan

A proposal to build a hotel-conference center on Ellis Island is economically flawed, says a report released Friday by the finance committee of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Commission.

The committee spent several months collecting and evaluating financial information on five proposals that the architecture committee made for the south end of Ellis Island, which includes a number of deteriorated buildings.

The island, in New York Harbor, was the first stop for processing new immigrants to the eastern United States until the 1930s. Restoring the island is the second phase of the project that began with refurbishing the Statue of Liberty.

Money Data Held Lacking

The report was critical of most of the architecture committee’s recommendations, complaining that little or inaccurate financial information was provided.

The five proposals were: Restore the buildings for a hotel-conference center; restore some buildings and create a festival-exhibit-crafts center; use some buildings for a museum; stabilize some buildings in a park-like setting, or fence the area and allow deterioration to continue.

The finance committee’s recommendation is to restore several historic structures and create a public park, at a projected cost of $23 million to $25 million. The plan calls for razing certain less significant buildings but leaving their “historic footprints” in the park setting.

“The restored structures could be utilized for National Park Service purposes, historical activity and limited meeting-conference use,” the report said.

Problems With Plan

Some of the chief problems the finance committee found with the hotel-conference center proposal were that projected costs were too low, raising capital would be difficult and access to the island is limited.

The proposal to build a festival-exhibit-crafts center “has an omnibus quality to it and practicably precludes a financial analysis in present form,” the report said.

The finance committee also rejected a proposed museum for the south end as “superfluous, if not economically wasteful” because the Great Hall on the north end is being turned into a museum.

The commission will meet April 24 in Washington.