New Hotel, New Housing Project Are in the Works in Fulton
By Stefan Yablonski
The future is looking brighter for the city of Fulton.
After a harsh 2025 battle, Mayor James Rice said there is a lot of stuff under way to bolster the city in 2026.
“Things are looking good for the future,” he said. “A lot of stuff is in the pipeline.”
For example, he said a developer is looking to build an 80-room Hampton Inn on the Nestle’s site and combine it with some housing. And there’s a recent retail component along the 481 side.
“It’s all been rezoned; it’s multi-use now. That paves the way for development there,” he explained. “We had an old grant going back to 2017 that originally was going to be used to build infrastructure on the site. We were able to turn it into a phase 2, which was to see where we are environmentally so we could progress with the development of the site.
“I don’t know if we will have shovels in the ground in 2026, although there is a possibility. We could get some remediation started. There will be shovels in the ground for the housing project at Seventh and Fay. We are expecting the demo of Building 30 this coming year.”
The Oswego County IDA has the manufacturing incubator project; Fulton hopes to go simultaneously maybe on the projects, he added.
LorBird Casual Food Choices is up and running. They had a ribbon cutting in September and a soft opening for a little while after that, the mayor said.
“Any time you increase capacity within a population it’s a good thing. A lot of our restaurants are local. LorBird offers something a little different than the others. I think they have been somewhat of an attraction to visitors who maybe haven’t been to our city. It’s a nice complement to what we already have. It doesn’t detract from what we already have here,” he said.
DRI
“We immediately got started with the Downtown Revitalization Initiative when I came on board. We have been pushing a lot of the projects forward, getting them completed,” he said. “There has been a lot of investment by smaller businesses as well as a variety of municipal projects such as projects at the library. There are a lot of things moving. Nine new business applications have been submitted just since November. They are going through project review committee right now.”
N.E.T. Tool & Die was a restore award.
“They are open and running over at the old Kmart site. It’s pretty impressive. I think they added four jobs in that one. They have increased automation,” he said. “Huhtamaki has a new PILOT agreement, so that will keep 400 jobs in Fulton. As part of the agreement, they are putting in some equipment. They didn’t really create new jobs — but we are keeping a lot. They continue to invest in Fulton; that’s all good stuff.”
There are challenges, he admitted.
“We had a difficult budget season. Residents here saw a significant tax increase. The largest reason for that is over the course of several years the city was projecting revenues that they weren’t necessarily going to get. We put revenues in our budget that we are confident that we are going to receive. We are not shooting for the moon,” he explained. “We made a lot of cuts to get the budget down. There were a lot of struggles for us putting together the 2026 budget.”
For example:
“We have 21 parks to mow and maintain. We typically do that with a seasonal workforce. That was cut by more than half for 2026. So that’s going to be a challenge. Hopefully coming into 2027 we’ll be at a point where our revenues are accurate,” he said. “We work on the expense side every day. The public doesn’t really have a perception of that.
“We’ve done a lot that people don’t necessarily see, but it helps. I think we are moving in the right direction. We are on the right trajectory. Good things are on the horizon; I think we are on the right track. This budget was painful — for everyone. If we keep business growth going and if we get something done with the Nestle site, that is going to benefit our revenues. That is really what we need to work on.”
The mayor highlighted some of the work in 2025:
Ribbon cuttings throughout the DRI zone have occurred over the last year, including the CNY Arts Center, Eastern Shore Associates, C.A. Fitzpatrick Financial, the Fulton Medical Campus (Oswego Health) and the LorBird Casual Food Choices property.
Each of these is strengthening Fulton’s business footprint and offerings, he said.
A new 60-unit housing project will break ground in 2026 on the Nestle site along with the anticipated demolition of Building 30, housing the newly constructed IDA manufacturing incubator, both DRI projects.
A Phase II environmental assessment on the remainder of the Nestle site will be completed and will serve as a catalyst for development on the vacant site.
“In the past year, we have concentrated on introducing new housing, repurposing and marketing vacant and abandoned housing to attract residents that will meet the demand in the coming years to accommodate a new workforce,” he said.
