SYRACUSE, NY (CNY Central) — The sudden closure of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Syracuse left more than 100 people out of work with no warning; the New York State Department of Labor is now looking into whether the owners broke the law.

Early Wednesday morning, people like line cook Nafees Hicks discovered they no longer had a job at the hotel. Hicks had arrived at 4 a.m. for his shift only to be told to exit the building; overnight, owners Terence McCarthy and TJM Properties made the decision to cease all operations effective immediately because the finances were in place to go ahead with converting the hotel into an apartment building, according to city officials.

“I was hearing about a closedown for months. But every time I asked somebody they said, ‘No, no, no,’ but then all of a sudden, this day, just — boom,” Hicks said. “It was dead wrong.”

The plan to turn the hotel rooms into apartment units became public back in April, approved by the Syracuse Planning Commission in early May. But no firm date was ever set for when the hotel would close; employees tell the I-Team that they were never notified. In fact, sources tell our team that local employees were instructed to carry on as normal, leading to thousands of bookings through 2027 that suddenly no longer exist.

State officials are now reviewing whether McCarthy and TJM violated WARN Act regulations, which exist at both the state and federal level to protect employees ahead of layoffs or a business closing its doors. The law applies to private businesses with at least 50 full-time employees, requiring those businesses to notify employees 90 days ahead of a worksite shutdown if at least 25 employees are impacted.

“The New York State Department of Labor has not received notification regarding the closure of the Crowne Plaza in Syracuse,” a spokesperson said in a statement to CNY Central, “The New York State Department of Labor is looking into this matter and will conduct a thorough review to verify details. Our Rapid Response Team is working to identify impacted employees and offer them job search assistance. If the Department determines a violation occurred, the company can be subject to civil penalties.”