New Hotel, New Fields, New Restaurants for Town of Hartwick

By DARLA M. YOUNGS
HARTWICK

“Yes, there’s lots of activity on Route 28,” Town of Hartwick Planning Board Clerk Elise Shiellack said on July 17 in an e-mail, when asked about ongoing development south of the Village of Cooperstown.

Shiellack confirmed that the former Pizza Hut building next to McDonald’s is still going to be a combination Dunkin’/Baskin Robbins.

As reported in “The Freeman’s Journal” and “Hometown Oneonta” on April 27, 2022, Town of Hartwick Planning Board members reviewed the site plan submitted by ADP Engineering and Architecture in December 2022, determining that changes to the property at 23 Commons Drive would be minor.

Those changes include: relocation of ADA parking and curb cuts; a new sidewalk; improved stormwater runoff and green space; resurfacing and restriping of the parking lot; and new street lighting and signage. A new drive-through lane will also be constructed.

As use of the building will remain similar to that of the former Pizza Hut, the New York State Department of Transportation determined no traffic studies would be necessary. ADP representatives indicated at the December planning board meeting that the new facility could be open by summer 2023.

The project application was declared complete by the Hartwick Planning Board on March 7 [2023]. A motion was made and passed by planning board members at that meeting to designate the project as an unlisted action with a negative declaration under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act. A public hearing was deemed unnecessary, as the building is changing over from one restaurant chain to another.

Following the March 7 meeting, the application was sent on to the Otsego County Planning Department for further review, where it was determined to have “no significant county-wide or inter-community impacts.” The project was unanimously approved by the Hartwick Planning Board on April 4, 2023.

“There have been many rumors circulating on Facebook that it’s going to be something other than that, but I confirmed with the engineering and architecture firm this week that nothing has changed from what the Planning Board approved,” Shiellack wrote.

A little closer to Cooperstown, construction of the Hampton Inn is well underway. According to Shiellack, that project had been delayed by the pandemic. Next door, Bob Hickey’s Cooperstown Experience is also taking shape.

“Bob Hickey has a lot going on,” Shiellack said. “His Cooperstown Experience project was originally supposed to open this summer—plans were approved in the summer of 2022 and amended in the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024—but has been pushed back a little bit.”

Cooperstown Experience, once completed, will include four turf fields for baseball and softball tournaments, as well as an indoor family entertainment center.

Hickey is also renovating both of his restaurants, Rookies and the Dugout Bar & Grill, Shiellack said.

Across from the Dreams Park, the former DiMaggio’s hot dog restaurant has been reopened by Perry Ferrara, owner of Cooperstown’s Railroad Inn and Heroes of Baseball Wax Museum. The new Bambino’s Cantina menu includes tacos, burritos, quesadillas and nachos.

“It did not need Planning Board approval because the building and parking lot aren’t changing at all,” Shiellack said. “Behind the restaurant, they just opened up Cooperstown Axe Throwing.”

Cooperstown Axe Throwing is open seven days a week, weather depending.