Director hopes hotel will spur development
The construction of the new convocation center at California University of Pennsylvania may be spurring additional development in the community. According to Bob Griffin, economic development director for the Washington County Redevelopment Authority, $5 million is in the state capital budget’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program for development of a hotel at the California Technology Park.
“Overall, it’s a $10 million project. That $10 million includes the actual development of the hotel in the business park, including the infrastructure that is needed, such as roads and sewerage,” Griffin said.
The developer will need to provide another $5 million toward the project, Griffin said.
“There are developers putting together a proposal to put a hotel in the park. They’ll make that proposal to us, the redevelopment authority, because we own the land,” Griffin said. “The goal is to have the hotel completed around the same time the convocation center is completed. There will be conferencing space inside the convocation center.”
Griffin said that between the possibility of attracting conferences and business retreats, the convocation center also will include a 6,000-seat event center.
Griffin said that while the funding was authorized in the current budget, more paperwork must be completed before it is released.
“We don’t have the money in hand, but it is looking like a reality. There really aren’t any other lodgings in California or nearby,” Griffin said.
The convocation center is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2011. Griffin said he anticipates construction to start on the hotel this fall in order for it to be ready when the convocation center opens.