So, if you haven’t been living under a rock in the past year, there are plans for a 9-story, 102-room hotel just off the commons, to be designed by Scott Whitham of Thomas Group Architects in conjunction with Ithaca Properties LLC / Rimland Associates. Well, it looks like they have a hotel operator in Gemstone Hotels & Resorts, a boutique hotel operator based out of Utah [1]:
Hotel Ithaca
Hotel Ithaca, currently in final planning and approval, is expected to open in 2011. The property will be a nine-story, full-service boutique hotel at the intersection of State and Aurora Streets. The hotel will feature 125 luxury rooms and suites and 2,000 square feet of flexible meeting space. The hotel will be built on the same site as the original Hotel Ithaca. In addition, the hotel will be the home of the original Zinck’s Bar, a cherished icon of the city’s past.
“We welcome the opportunity to be involved with the first luxury boutique hotel in the Ithaca area,” said Thomas Prins. “Because the city is also home to the world renowned Cornell Hotel School, we are very excited to set a new standard in concept and operations and set an example for students and the many hotelier alumni who visit the school.”
I have no clue where they had the idea it was a 125-room hotel. Everything I’ve read has stated 102 rooms.
That being said, since the last Zinck’s closed over forty years ago, the only things most of us modern Cornellians know about it is from “Give My Regards to Davy” [/We’ll all have drinks at Theodore Zinck’s/]. Cornell’s alumni associations make use of the Zinck’s nostalgia in its alumni events:
“Theodore Zinck was a saloonkeeper in Ithaca, and his pub, the Hotel Brunswick, was a popular gathering place for Cornellians in the 1890s. After his death in 1903, several bars using his name continued to provide a haven for students. When the last Zinck’s closed in the mid-1960s, celebrating the spirit of Zinck’s became a favorite Thursday night Collegetown tradition for undergraduates. It wasn’t long afterward that Cornellians began to continue the tradition in their hometowns. This year, alumni will celebrate this uniquely Cornell event in more than 90 cities around the world. So wherever you are, remember your days at Cornell on October 16. [2]”
Currently, the University uses “the Spirit of Zinck’s night” as a way to promote alumni involvement (e.g. solicit donations). With the historical name being reused at a drinking establishment once again, it looks like they might be able to celebrate at Zinck’s a couple of years from now.
[1]http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9097563&nav=menu35_8
Ithacating in Cornell Heights 
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