Hotel construction under way at Schenectady casino site

Galesi Group broke ground on a $15 million, 124-room Courtyard by Marriott, the first of two hotels being planned for its 60-acre Mohawk Harbor development, which will include the $330 million Rivers Casino.

The hotel, which will be built by BBL Construction of Albany, will be the first of 1 million square feet of new housing and commercial buildings that Galesi has planned for the Mohawk River casino property, which was once home toAmerican Locomotive Co. and is being called Mohawk Harbor.

“It’s a great pleasure to start going vertical,” David Buicko, Galesi’s chief operating officer, said. “We’re the envy of upstate.”

Galesi said that First Niagara is financing the hotel, which will be done by August.

And although the hotels Galesi is planning will serve the casino clientele, local civic and business leaders said they were excited to get another major hotel for the city, which doesn’t have enough hotel rooms to serve business travelers now even before the casino is built.