Syracuse's Sheraton Hotel Becoming Residence Hall Per Campus Framework Plans

I've talked in the past about how depressing it was the first time I returned to Syracuse after graduating. It was only seven or eight months later but it had already felt as though the world had moved on and forgotten me. One of the clearest signs of this was how my Friday Happy Hour tradition (Regatta Bar at Sheraton Hotel at 5:00 p.m. followed by Darwin's) was no longer a tradition. We stopped into the Regatta on a Friday and it was a ghost town. My Syracuse Experience was dead and gone.

Ultimately it's a small thing and there were far more important places and events during my time at SU than where I drank on Friday afternoons. But it was a symbol, you know? Things change and they change fast.

As Syracuse.com notes, according to the Campus Framework plan that SU released earlier this week, that change gets even bigger in the near future when the entire hotel becomes a residential hall instead while the school builds another hotel on campus.

According to the framework, the building that now houses the 235-room Sheraton University Hotel and Conference Center will be used as a residence hall. Parts of the Sheraton have been used for housing for years now. In the 2015-16 school year, 66 students lived there.

This is also part of a bigger initiative to move all university student housing close to or on campus, which means South Campus housing is also going bye-bye.

In typical SU fashion, the plans are considered preliminary and they note no decisions about construction, size, or design have been made. So for now it's a plan but not a confirmed one.

As for the Sheraton, one wonders what will happen to the bar, the restaurant, and the rest of the hotel accommodations. There's going to be a lot of work needed to make all of that more "residential." There are bonuses as well. Your "commute" to campus and/or Marshall Street is a sweet one. Plus, there's an indoor pool and sauna in there as well. I don't remember having a pool at Brewster/Boland...