SYRACUSE, NY-Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a stop in Syracuse on Thursday to announce that Stamford, CT-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide plans to build a new 130-room Aloft hotel here.

The $18-million project at the city's Inner Harbor will be the first new building in a planned $350-million development along the former state Barge Canal.

COR Development Co., of Fayetteville, hopes to develop 32 acres of former state lands around the harbor. COR Inner Harbor, an affiliated company, plans to build some commercial buildings, townhouses and apartments, and a community boathouse, according to The Post Standard.

Construction on the Aloft Hotel is scheduled to begin in March or April of 2014 with an opening projected for a year later. See story in The Post Standard.