What used to be Philadelphia’s Four Seasons hotel is set to reopen as a branch of Hilton’s high-end Curio brand, the hotel’s operator said Tuesday.
The property, which will be renamed the Logan, will be completely renovated before opening this fall, Denver-based Sage Hospitality Group said in a statement.
The Logan Square hotel, owned by Host Hotels & Resorts, will have its traditional decor updated to a more modern look, according to Sage, which did not provide a budget for the renovations.
The Century III Mall could be in for a dramatic makeover as the owner considers demolishing part of the complex to provide more retailers with outside entrances and bring in medical offices and a hotel.
A preliminary plan posted — and later removed on Thursday — from the website of the mall’s owner, Las Vegas-based Moonbeam Capital Investments, called for opening the center part of the 1.3 million-square-foot complex so that it would resemble more of a outdoor shopping plaza.
It also called for a movie theater and 14,800-square-foot hotel, as well as transforming a vacant Sears store into medical offices or an assisted living facility.
Calls and email messages left for Moonbeam officials were not returned. However, West Mifflin officials said they had been talking with Moonbeam about the overhaul.
Read more: http://triblive.com/business/headlines/8458529-74/mall-moonbeam-century#ixzz3bXtyh8Hk
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Introduced as interior designer for the 152-room SLS LUX Philadelphia Hotel, the iconic Phillipe Starck found it easy to strike the right chord with his audience of city movers and shakers.
Turning to Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, the Frenchman thanked the recording impresarios for giving him “the kind of music that has allowed me to make good projects.”
“This is my opportunity,” Starck said of his first Philadelphia project, “to be able to pay my debt to you and your music,” to which he listens as he designs.
With speeches, gold bricks, and daytime fireworks Friday at the Kimmel Center’s Hamilton Garden, developers Carl Dranoff and Sam Nazarian, CEO of Los Angeles-based sbe Entertainment Group, led the tributes to Gamble and Huff.
TANNERSVILLE, PA — Shedding winter layers for swimsuits at Camelback Lodge and Aquatopia will take a month longer than expected.
The newest addition to Camelback Resort, a 453-suite hotel and a 125,000-square-foot indoor waterpark, was tentatively scheduled to open in March. The 16-month, $163 million construction project has been delayed due to winter’s tight grasp on the region.
“Obviously, we’ve had tremendous weather difficulties, and that is a fact, but we are probably 95 percent on schedule,” Arthur Berry, president of Camelback Resort told the Pocono Record.
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http://www.timesleader.com/news/business-local-news/152089723/
WILKES-BARRE, PA — Two outdoor video signs on a downtown building are for the birds and other wildlife for the time being, until a software switch replaces them with ads.
The signs atop the building owned by hotelier Gus Genetti on the corner of North Street and North Pennsylvania Avenue have been up for a few weeks. On Friday he said that they should be displaying advertisements for his facilities and promoting area non-profit organizations by the end of next week.
The transition has been delayed because of a switch to a different program to run the ads after difficulties arose with the original software, Genetti explained. “We’re waiting to be trained on the program,” he said.
Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/50967407/
Map of Washington County higlighting Charleroi. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Editor’s note: Imagine that, another town with a vision and a plan…with the rash of shootings going on in Pottstown again….a vision and a plan would be in order. Just sayin’…
Donn Henderson sees the Charleroi riverfront development he wants 25 miles away in Pittsburgh.
“It’s not rocket science. There are plenty of examples,” said Henderson, manager of the borough, which will announce a redevelopment plan for the central business district Thursday. “Just look at the North Side. That’s a great model. The South Side, too.”
Re-creating Pittsburgh’s successes deep in Washington County‘s Mon Valley will not be easy. But continuing to watch the once-thriving industrial and retail community lose population amid growing drug and crime problems certainly will accomplish nothing, Henderson said.
“We cannot continue that trend and survive,” he said.
Read more: http://triblive.com/news/washington/7133358-74/charleroi-henderson-buildings#ixzz3IxX1Lmiv
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Gov. Tom Corbett delivered a $2.5 million state redevelopment assistance capital grant this morning to jump start Downtown’s latest hotel project — 104 rooms, three bars, and a brasserie-style restaurant at Wood Street and Sixth Avenue.
The $38 million independent boutique hotel will be housed in the Granite Building, a Romanesque-style structure built in 1889 and site of the former German National Bank. A building next door that once housed an Arby’s restaurant also will be part of the development.
The project is being developed by Holly Brubach, a former New York Times style editor who bought the Granite Building in 2006 with the intent of turning it into condominiums.
But that project was done in by the recession, prompting Ms. Brubach to change course.
It’s becoming the Lazarus of Downtown projects.
Left for dead a year ago, and several times before that, a plan to build a 500-room hotel attached to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center is being resurrected by top political leaders.
Mayor Bill Peduto said Thursday that he and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald have asked the Sports & Exhibition Authority to gauge the interest in and to study the feasibility of the proposed hotel, which would be built in a parking lot next to the convention center.
The full-service hotel, Mr. Peduto said, always was meant to be “the final part” of the convention center and to serve as its front entrance. “The building’s never been completed,” he said. “The hotel was supposed to be done.”
Map of New Jersey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Revel AC Inc. said in a bankruptcy court filing Wednesday that it had reached a deal to sell its $2.4 billion Atlantic City property to South Florida developer Glenn Straub for $90 million in cash.
The deal was reached Friday, according to the filing. That was less than a week after Revel closed, putting nearly 3,000 people out of work.
The offer is less than 4 percent of the casino’s original price tag.
“It’s not going to be just a casino,” Straub said. “There’s four people that would make excellent casino operators, but that building is much, much more than just a casino.”
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20140911_Stricken_Revel_has_a_buyer_for__90M_in_cash.html#UYw7HbKdWPWbAI8K.99
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Next week, developers will present their designs for the W and Element Hotels planned for 15th and Chestnut streets to the Center City Residents Association. The presentation is for information only: The planned project requires no zoning variances and can be built by right.
According to a description shared with PlanPhilly by an attorney working on the project, the hotels will have a total of 755 rooms. There will be 295 rooms in the four-star W Hotel, and 460 rooms in the three-star, extended-stay Element by Westin. The entire hotel operation will be managed by Starwood, a Connecticut-based hospitality company.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/Plans_for_two_hotels_at_15th_and_Chestnut_taking_shape.html#P5wsWYOKxqO3JmVS.99
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Spooky Nook Sports is adding a hotel and restaurant within its sprawling East Hempfield Township facility.
The 130-room hotel will be independently branded, open to tournament attendees and the public year round.
The 260-seat restaurant will have an American cuisine theme and a family friendly environment.
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lackawanna County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
MOOSIC, PA — Mayor James Segilia has five words for three motels in the borough.
“Clean up or close down.”
Ever since a standoff at the Rodeway Inn, 4130 Birney Ave., in January tied up local police departments for five hours, Segilia and police chief Charles Maurer have sought ways to close down the Rodeway, Moosic Motor Inn, 4124 Birney Ave., and Trotters Motel, 4217 Birney Ave.
The three motels are a nuisance that attract a dangerous clientele and tie up police resources on countless calls, the mayor said.
“It costs time, aggravation and it takes away from police patrols,” Segilia said.
Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/moosic-mayor-clean-up-or-close-down-1.1703585
There are Holiday Inns all over the land but not a one in Downtown. A Bridgeville developer is hoping to change that.
The Forza Group will brief the city planning commission Tuesday on a proposal to build an eight-story, 99-room Holiday Inn at 435 Fort Pitt Blvd. near Smithfield Street. The plan also includes a bar and restaurant and limited parking, nine spaces in all.
In documents filed with the planning commission, Forza said it hopes to have the $9 million project completed by June 2015.
“There’s really no [Holiday Inn] presence in the Downtown Pittsburgh area,” said Brock Hunt, Forza’s director of franchise relations. The closest is a Holiday Inn Express and Suites on South 10th Street, South Side.
Kiran Patel says the days of turmoil at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh are finally over.
“The city and people at large want to see this property not as an eyesore,” Patel, the hotel’s owner since 2011, said this week.
Nearly $15 million in renovations were completed in January, adding three floors to the front of the building, more meeting space and a pool with a breathtaking view of the Fort Pitt Bridge and the Point.
But getting there was not easy. Patel, a Tampa physician and businessman, had to navigate the hotel out of bankruptcy, manage union unrest over a new contact, and complete the renovation project that was stalled for at least two years under the previous owners.
Read more: http://triblive.com/business/headlines/5924249-74/hotel-patel-wyndham#ixzz2yj4m6ho8
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Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
WILKES-BARRE, PA — The top two penthouse floors of Best Western Genetti Hotel and Conference Center in downtown Wilkes-Barre will be converted into the new “Oyster Boutique Hotel,” hotel owner Gus Genetti and Oyster Restaurant owner Thom Greco said this morning.
Genetti said it will cost $200,000 to $250,000 to upgrade the rooms to create a small intimate luxury hotel with amenities such as new furnishings, technology and art. The rooms will cater to those looking for high-end rooms, he said.
Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/genetti-s-upgrading-hotel-in-wilkes-barre-1.1666257
Location of Upper Merion Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
UPPER MERION TOWNSHIP, PA — If area residents who were without power may have felt like the losers in Wednesday’s icy winter weather games, the winners were the area’s hotels, where “no vacancy” seemed to be a recurring theme.
Then again, depending on where they chose to spend Wednesday night, some of those displaced “losers” may have felt as if their luck was about to change for the better.
“Where else would you want to be but at a casino on a night like tonight, right?” said Michael Bowman, CEO and president of Valley Forge Casino Resort.
With every one of the resort’s 485 rooms due to be snapped up within the hour, Bowman said the lobby was buzzing with folks who had closed up their dark and unheated homes in search of plush lodgings on First Avenue in King of Prussia.
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
CONSHOHOCKEN, PA — A developer’s agreement with Keystone Property Group (KPG) of Lower Merion to build a hotel, an office tower and a parking garage on Fayette Street and a new borough building for police and borough workers was unanimously approved Wednesday by Borough Council.
The $200 million KPG plan was selected by council in mid-September over a competing proposal by Brandywine Realty Trust (BRT) of Radnor.
The 32-page agreement will be ratified Friday by the Montgomery County Redevelopment Authority.
KPG agreed to build an 18-story, 200-room hotel at the intersection of Fayette and Elm streets, an eight-story parking garage to replace an existing three-story garage and a new, 16-story, 200,000-square-foot office building at the intersection of First Avenue and Fayette Street.
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The developer Carl E. Dranoff is partnering with Los Angeles-based SBE Entertainment Group to build a 47-story, mixed-use luxury boutique hotel and condominium tower at Broad and Spruce Streets, across from the Kimmel Center, for more than $200 million.
The 422,838-square-foot SLS International, which Dranoff said would be Pennsylvania’s “tallest structure built for residential use,” is being designed by New York-based architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, whose chairman, A. Eugene Kohn, is a Philadelphia native.
The tower will rise 562 feet – 14 feet higher than the City Hall tower. Construction is expected to start next fall and take two years.
Dranoff said approvals for the project were at “the 3-yard line,” with Councilman Mark Squilla set to introduce legislation in City Council to extend the zoning designation CMX-5, which allows a higher building floor area in relation to the lot, past Spruce Street to Pine Street.
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
WILKES-BARRE, PA —The King’s College physician-assistant program has attracted several hundred applicants, and the college is looking for space to allow that expansion.
Apparently, that space might be the Ramada Hotel on Public Square.
Although sources said no deal has been struck to date, several indicated that there is a strong interest from King’s in the 105-room hotel that opened in the 1980s as the Sheraton-Crossgates.
Tony Grosek, owner of the Ramada, said he has been talking to college officials about entering into a long-term deal, but Grosek said he couldn’t confirm that anything has been finalized.
Read more: http://timesleader.com/news/local-news/933106/Ramada-near-deal-with-Kings-College-sources-say
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Standing amid workers installing tile and trim and painting the new lobby, real estate developer John Meeder declared: “The experience starts here.”
The experience is one of a bright, open lobby; clean, well appointed rooms; and a well-managed facility.
It will be the experience of The Hotel Lancaster, promised Meeder.
“The Brunswick is history. It is no longer the name of this hotel,” he said. “Sorry historians, but there is too much baggage.”
The street-level lobby had long been recommended by urban planners, but by moving it to the East Chestnut Street side of the building, Meeder and his partners also are getting a new address.
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