A 500-room hotel is planned for a site adjacent to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh, which will give the city two hotels attached to the convention center along the Allegheny River according to state, city and county officials.
Loews Hotels & Co. of New York City, which bills itself as a luxury hotel chain has signed a letter of intent to build the hotel adjacent to the convention center.
The hotel chain has agreed to make a $135 million investment into the project, which Gov. Shapiro’s administration said will create 1,200 union construction jobs and 400 permanent union jobs.
The administration said that the project will spur $418 million in total investment, but did not detail where the additional millions of investment will occur.
A spokesperson for Loews Hotels could not be reached for comment Thursday night.
Visitors to the convention center already have a hotel connected to the facility. The Westin Hotel Convention Center Pittsburgh, located across Penn Avenue at 10th Street from the convention center, is connected by a skywalk over Penn Avenue.
The Loews hotel project will be expedited through the state’s permit fast track program, which streamlines permitting for high-impact economic development and infrastructure projects, the Shapiro administration said.
The Shapiro administration is providing Loews Hotels with $30 million in state funding for the project.
Allegheny County also will provide government financing for the deal, by using various revenue sources, including some of the hotel tax already in place, county Executive Sara Innamorato said. She said a portion of that tax has always been intended to go toward building a hotel at the convention center.
Neither the statement from the Shapiro administration Thursday nor from Innamorato detailed how much money the county will provide for the project.
”A hotel connected to the convention center has been under discussion for two decades, but we are going to make it a reality,” said county Executive Sara Innamorato. “A hotel that provides more opportunity for the convention center to succeed is a worthwhile investment and will help our entire Downtown and regional economy thrive,” she added.
There also was no mention Thursday whether the City or Pittsburgh, with its significant financial problems, will contribute any money to the Loews Corp. project.
Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor said in a statement he sees the Loews hotel as delivering “new economic opportunity by creating jobs and providing new opportunities for visitors and large scale events so that people can come experience Pittsburgh and support our small businesses.”
State Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, who is chairman of the Sports & Exhibition Authority, said he has been advocating for 20 years for a hotel to serve as a front door to the convention center.
Fontana said there have been negotiations on the hotel project for the last 18 months.
Loews Hotels is a subsidiary of Loews Corp., which has business interests in the insurance, energy, hospitality and packaging industries.
Loews Corp. reported in February it had a net income of $1.66 billion in 2025.
