By Jared Stonesifer
CENTER TWP. — Now that Shell Chemicals has announced it will build a multibillion-dollar ethane cracker plant in nearby Potter Township, a Washington County development firm has announced its intent to build another hotel in Center Township.
Millcraft Investments will build a Hilton Garden Inn off Wagner Road Extension, west of the Beaver Valley Mall. The project will be adjacent to another hotel, a Home2Suites, which Millcraft is also building.
The hotels will be contained within the Stoney Ridge development.
The Home2Suites project will break ground soon, according to Marcus Piatt, president of Millcraft’s hotel division. Construction is expected to end around May or June next year, he said.
The company recently announced it will also build the Hilton Garden Inn, which is expected to cost $20 million and include 175 rooms. Millcraft will break ground on the project in the fall, Piatt said.
He added that Millcraft waited to finalize plans on the Hilton until Shell made its decision.
“We felt the current demographic was significant enough to support an additional hotel in the market, but we waited until the cracker decision for the Hilton,” he said.
Piatt said the two hotels will ideally attract different clienteles. The Home2Suites will cater to temporary construction workers who are in the area for weeks at a time, while the Hilton will cater to middle management and other business clientele who are in the area for only a short time.
Piatt added he’s thrilled to bring two new hotels to the area, especially because the cracker plant will be in such close proximity.
But he did caution other developers in the area to be wary of overdevelopment in the wake of Shell’s decision.
“We’re excited overall, but the area has to be careful, especially on the hospitality side, on overbuilding,” he said. “We saw it down here in Washington County when Range Resources came in and a whole bunch of hotels followed. Now we see a lot of (hotels) in trouble and not doing quite what they were doing three or four years ago (because of the slowdown of the gas drilling industry).”
Frank Vescio, Center Township planning development coordinator, said the property for the two hotels has already been subdivided, but his office hasn’t yet seen any preliminary designs for the new Hilton hotel.