Pens' Planned Hotel First Step To Developing Area Near New Arena

Penguins' Planned Hotel To Be Seven Floors,  With 142 Rooms Located East Of New Arena

The Penguins yesterday announced plans for a seven-story hotel, the team's "first bid to fulfill the development potential associated" with its new $290M arena project, according to Dan Majors of the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE. Penguins President David Morehouse: "We think it's an exciting first step to the development around the arena. We're very happy to be moving ahead this quickly. This hotel is going to create jobs. It's going to create tax revenue for the region." Morehouse said that the project is "'a luxury hotel with limited services,' principally aimed at accommodating those in town for arena events." Preliminary drawings indicate that "half of the rooms will be suites." There also will be a "street-level restaurant with a patio opening up toward the arena and there will be some conference facilities, but not as much as you would find in some other hotels." Officials "cautioned that, at this time, the Penguins and developer Horizon Properties only have a memorandum of understanding on the project and many details, including cost, remain to be worked out." Yet, members of the Pittsburgh Contextual Design Advisory Panel "expressed support, with more than one member saying, 'This looks great.'" Officials "hope to start construction of the hotel by the start of the new year and have it completed when the new arena opens before the start of the 2010-11" NHL season (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 10/15). In Pittsburgh, Bonnie Pfister notes the 142-room luxury hotel would be built "immediately east" of the new arena. Penguins and Horizon Properties officials said that the operator of the hotel "won't be determined for a few weeks, but it will be a national, franchised chain." Morehouse said that the development price "is being determined," and "declined to say how the team and Horizon Properties would structure their partnership." In addition to the one-acre hotel parcel, the Penguins plan to "bring retailers to the arena's street-level space and to develop 28 acres nearby" (Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 10/15).