Our Story

SKY Armory is the culmination of a 20 year journey of events and entrepreneurship.

Our story begins in 1996 when Nicole Samolis, CSEP left her career in retail management and ventured into the emerging event industry and launched The Events Company. Since that time our focus has been on the client and planning events in various event venues, barns and tents across Central New York, the US and even Mexico. As we traveled to other cities and experienced unique venues an idea began to grow and saw the opportunity of creating our own unique venue in our own backyard - the concept of SKY Armory was born.

Because we're planners first, our concept for a unique venue is very different from the traditional banquet facility. We are still client centric and customize the event experience. As Nicole likes to say, 'we fixed all of our pet peeves with the other venues' - When you come to SKY you have an event planner, we're focused on exceptional service, made from scratch food, great wines (served in the appropriate wine glass), craft beers, decor and anything else a client would need for their event.

Our commitment to downtown Syracuse centered our search for a building and found the former Wells & Coverly Department Store. We gutted the building, blew out the back wall to create a modern entry atrium that put us into the hub of Armory Square. It was a labor of love. - and in October of 2014 we opened our doors and have wowing our clients and their guests since.

It takes a Team:

Nicole and Kevin Samolis are the owners and proprietors leading the team to fulfill our vision of being a venue like no other, where the environment, the food, the beverages and our hospitality meet to create amazing events that you and your guests will be talking about for years.

Our Social Mission:

Caring about each other and supporting our community are two of our Core Values. We believe that we can make a two-fold impact for our employees and our community by focusing our social mission on helping to end poverty in Syracuse.

Syracuse has one of the highest levels of extreme poverty out of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas and continues to lag in seeing a decrease in poverty. At SKY Armory, we want to do our part to make a difference in the fight against poverty by not only supporting organizations who provide assistance to those living in poverty, but also to make a commitment to hiring candidates who come from a lower socio-economic background and Syracuse's disadvantaged neighborhoods. We target 30% of our workforce coming from underserved neighborhoods.

Our approach to attracting employment candidates includes reaching out to community organizations that can connect prospective candidates with SKY. Many of our positions do not require formal training and can be learned on the job. This allows us to maintain our hiring strategy of hiring for "attitude." Prospective candidates have a desire to work hard, are naturally helpful, want to be part of a team, have a willingness to learn, and a passion to provide an exceptional guest experience.

We are committed to providing onboarding for all of our new hires that includes orientation, on-the-job training, giving feedback, and coaching our team members to be their best and grow their careers. We understand that a person living in poverty may face additional challenges that require additional understanding and support as they grow their career opportunities. We make the effort to understand their challenges, support them, be flexible with schedules, Uber them home if required to work past the Centro departure time and care about their overall well-being.

Our Green Initiative:

We strive to be as green as possible with everything we do, not just here at SKY Armory, but with all 3 of our brands. Here's how we support that mission:

CONSERVATION

Use of tap water for all beverage stations and water service. Did you know Syracuse has the cleanest and best tasting water in the US?

Use of china, glassware and silverware and avoid using disposable products

Use of ENERGY STAR-rated equipment

Conserve energy by keeping rooms at certain temperatures when not utilized - a little chilly in the winter and a little warm in the summer - we love spring and fall

Use of LED light fixtures and turn off lights when not in use - mom would be proud

Work as paperless as possible - although trees are a renewable resource

Utilization of biodegradable cleaning agents

Recycle cardboard, bottles, cans, plastics

Recycling of toner and ink cartridges