Westmoreland Mall a feasible location for proposed convention center

A 200-room hotel and convention center with 15,000 square feet of meeting space could find a home at Westmoreland Mall.

Some results of a study examining the feasibility of a hotel and convention center in Westmoreland County were revealed Wednesday by Sean Sullivan, general manager of Live Casino Pittsburgh, during a public licensing hearing before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The study, launched last year by the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce, also recommended 50,000 square feet of event space and a hotel with a restaurant, bar and indoor pool.

Renderings show the hotel and convention center would sit next to the casino.

“We say, ‘Well, nothing better than being a neighbor,’ ” said Sullivan, who manages the casino at Westmoreland Mall in Hempfield. “Who knows where it’ll end up or how it’s going to finalize, how it’s going to be funded … but this would be a magical improvement for the mall and the property and for the community.

“The study has come out, it says it’s feasible, and now you just have to put together the box to make it make sense.”

The $25,000 study was aimed at exploring the potential construction of a convention center somewhere in Westmoreland County. Officials said in December such a facility would fill a need left behind by the closing of the Ramada Hotel and Conference Center in Hempfield in 2015. That building was demolished in 2021.

Chamber president Dan DeBone did not return a phone call seeking comment.

In December, he said the chamber would “prefer a location along the Route 30 corridor, from Irwin, Jeannette, Adamsburg, Greensburg and Latrobe areas. Our main focal point right now is (Westmoreland Mall).”

CBRE Hotels, a Texas-based hospitality consulting firm, explored over several weeks the possibility of the convention center. Hempfield Supervisor Doug Weimer said the feasibility study indicated there was room in the market — and a need — for a hotel and a large convention space.

“It notated the Westmoreland Mall campus as an area that would definitely work for that endeavor,” he said.