Hotel to open at Saratoga racino on Thursday

PHOTOGRAPHER: Erica Miller

Exterior of the new Saratoga Casino Hotel, opening on Thursday, in Saratoga Springs on Monday afternoon, June 27, 2016.

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The Victorian-modern hotel that has given the Saratoga Casino Hotel its new name is about to open after more than a year of construction.

The swimming pool has been filled and the opening from the hotel lobby directly onto the casino floor is in place, desk clerks at the ready as people wander in. But elsewhere, workers were still scurrying Monday to put the finishing touches on some of the luxury rooms on the upper floors of the 117-room hotel.

After more than a year of construction, the four-story hotel at the former Saratoga Casino and Raceway will take in its first paying guests on Thursday night.

The Morton’s the Steakhouse just off the lobby — the first upstate appearance of the national steakhouse chain — opened for business Monday night, and Perks Cafe, offering Starbucks coffee products and baked goods, also opened.

“It’s going to provide the nicest rooms in the market,” said Saratoga Casino Hotel spokeswoman Rita Cox. “Our goal is really to provide luxury in this market.”

The $40 million hotel is an integral part of the video-lottery terminal casino’s strategy for maintaining its market share as it faces soon-to-come competition from the Rivers Casino and Resort in Schenectady. Rivers will include a Marriott hotel scheduled to open this fall, but Cox said the Saratoga hotel will be going for more of a luxury feel.

“It’s supposed to be modern Victorian,” she said.

Construction started in May 2015. Bookings have been “very good,” Cox said, though there are still some rooms available for Thursday night.

The 75-year-old harness racing track, which added VLTs in 2004, changed its name to the Saratoga Casino and Hotel in April, in anticipation of the hotel’s opening.

Rates for a room with two queen beds will range from around $500 per night on a weekend during the August tourism thoroughbred racing season to $115 per night in November. Such seasonal rate differences are typical of the Saratoga hotel market.

About 150 jobs have been created with the expansion and addition, including about 65 jobs at the steakhouse, which has hired cooks who are veterans of such restaurants at the Raindancer in Amsterdam and the former Lillian’s on Broadway.

“I joined Morton’s to open this restaurant. I’m moving from Minnesota,” said restaurant general manager Shawn Mason.

He said he knew Morton’s from the years he spent working in Chicago, and wanted to come to the East Coast. “The concept is that we would exceed everyone’s expectations,” he said. “We want to provide a good value, and we want to be connected to the community. We want to be more than a special occasion place.”

Some of the hotel’s luxury suites will have both a shower and a hot tub/bath, and many feature a view of the harness track, where those with betting accounts will be able to place bets from their rooms. All the rooms feature impressionistic murals in which various images from Saratoga Springs or horse-racing are blended.

Despite the casino being home to a harness track, the “flat track” — Saratoga Race Course — isn’t ignored. Guests will be able to travel to the thoroughbred track, which is only a half-mile away, by either shuttle bus or a horse-drawn carriage, Cox said. The carriage will also be available for wedding packages, Cox said.

Despite being located outside the city’s downtown hotel and retail district, the casino hotel will be trying to orient out-of-town guests to the rest of the city and the things to do there. Just inside the circular lobby is a touch-screen computer on which visitors will be able to find the city’s attractions, from restaurants and bars to jogging and bicycling routes.

Reach Gazette reporter Stephen Williams at 395-3086, [email protected] or @gazettesteve on Twitter.