The new owners of the Wells and Coverly building envision opening the doors in September with a look above Armory Square. Nicole and Kevin Samolis have been renovating the building since the Spring of 2013 and now the big rush to complete the building by September is on. There will be three levels of create-your-own event space at a place called SKY Armory (see an artist's view: HERE). The large halls will capture rustic, wooden ceilings. However, after that, Sales Manager Amy Preble says they envision the décor of the banquet halls with illuminated lighting.
"So you can pretty much pick any color you’re looking for and wash the room in s certain color. Hanging things from the ceiling can also be a dramatic effect, hanging chandeliers, Chinese lanterns or regular lanterns or even having planks over food stations, so now you have hanging flowers and greenery so you’re really creating that atmosphere and look."
Preble adds that customers can also pick-out where the furniture goes to create a lounge. She says the company feels that by attracting more rehearsal dinners, and bridal showers that will mean more impact for the other Armory bars and nightclubs. No matter how many other existing choices there are, she feels the event space will offer something different.
“We feel like the pool of event space is very small in Syracuse so we’re hoping just to add to that. When you get to a certain number of people you’re capped and you don’t have a lot of places to go to. We feel like we’re providing something back to the community that we don’t necessarily have.”
At least 40 events have enough foresight to look beyond the dust, sheetrock, and welders to reserve a place that will hopefully be as good as the pie in the sky they imagine. Executive Chef Jason Jessmore is also dreaming about his kitchen that’s currently empty walls of sheetrock.
“99 % of everything that comes out of this kitchen is from scratch. We’re making our own pastas, we’ll have a pastry chef making our breads, making our desserts. Bread service isn’t going to be just a basket of bread thrown on the table, it’ll be pass along the fresh breads that were baked an hour before the event, everything from scratch. That’s why we need all the space.”
The entrance to SKY Armory will be through an alley across from Syracuse Suds Factory at South Clinton and Walton Streets. The company is already hiring and expects to have 112 employees by 2015.
