With the snip of a ceremonial red ribbon, business and civic leaders unveiled the long-awaited Lancaster County Convention Center and Marriott hotel today.
The brief ceremony inside the Lancaster Marriott on Penn Square's main entrance marked the beginning of a new era in downtown Lancaster's revitalization effort and the end of 10 years of community debate and legal wrangling.
The hotel and convention center erected behind the facade of Lancaster's beloved Watt & Shand department store is in a class of its own.
From the hotel's marble lobby to the carvernous convention hall to the stunning vistas of city and farmland visible from upstairs hotel rooms, the project provides the county with luxury accommodations on a scale comparable to many in Philadelphia, Washington or New York.
The convention center and hotel cost $177.6 million — up $3.2 million from previous reports — and is the most expensive building project in Lancaster history.
VIDEO: Convention center, hotel unveiled
SLIDESHOW: Tour convention center, hotel AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Preserving Watt & Shand facade AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Architect on center/hotel design In a short ceremony in the crowd-packed hotel lobby, Nevin Cooley, president of hotel developer Penn Square General Corporation, cited a 1997 city economic study which called the building "the heart and soul of Lancaster."
"For about 14 years, we haven't been able to hear the heartbeat because the site we're standing on has not been used," Cooley said.
Today, that heartbeat was officially being restarted, Cooley told about 300 people, including elected officials, city shop owners, tourist industry representatives and project supporters.
From the project's inception in 1998, its proponents have claimed that spin-off spending by conventioneers and event-goers would fuel a downtown resurgence of businesses and jobs.
They have also suggested it would open the county tourism industry to wealthier travelers and large-scale meetings and conventions.
"It will attract a different demographic group. It will attract people that want a top-notch hotel. There is no facility like it in the county, or in the mid-state, for that matter," said Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray, speaking by telephone from the West Coast earlier this week.
He was attending his daughter's wedding in San Francisco and could not attend the ceremony.
The center's 220,000-square-foot exhibition hall was designed to accommodate groups as large as 6,000 for conventions and meetings, consumer shows such as home or boat shows, and competitions such as volleyball and cheerleading events.
The rooms of the 300-room hotel tower each have large, flat-screen televisions, 300-thread-count sheets on pillow-top mattresses, granite countertops and rainwater shower heads in the bathrooms.
After today's ribbon-cutting ceremony, the hotel officially opens for business Friday. The public will have an opportunity to see the hotel and convention center on Sunday, when it will be open for tours from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Earlier this week, as they looked forward to today's ribbon cutting, officials' summations of the project were glowing.
"This is one of the most unique properties, not just in Lancaster, not just in Pennsylvania, but anywhere in the country," said Josh Nowak, the marketing director of the new facility. He added that local officials and veteran meeting planners have expressed similar opinions after touring the building.
One of the most significant aspects of the integrated facility is its joining of old and new. Builders erected steel supports to preserve the department store facade —\!q at a cost of between $7 million and $8 million — and constructed a modern building behind it.
The new structure also envelops the historic buildings that are being developed as the Stevens and Smith museum by the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County and the 1804 Montgomery House that is being renovated as guest suites.
An "interior street" design concept separates the old and new structures and visually draws visitors through the building, said Bob Neal, the principal project architect.
Neal, of Atlanta-based Cooper Carry architects, said earlier this week that every effort was made to preserve the "pedestrian scale" of Lancaster. The new 18-level hotel tower is set back so that it does not loom over the street.
"It's incredibly unique," Neal said of the project. "It has some richness to it because of the existing buildings — and primarily the Watt & Shand building — that you just don't get at other sites."
He praised the project developers for their willingness to incorporate the building and predicted the decision to do so will "pay dividends in the future..."
"It is one of the most creative, unique convention center/hotels that we've ever worked on," said Neal.
The impetus for the project came from a desire to save the Watt & Shand building and make it a viable destination again in the city, said Tom Smithgall, of master developer High Associates Ltd.
The building had been closed since 1995, when store owner Bon-Ton closed its downtown location. After plans to locate the Lancaster campus of Harrisburg Area Community College at the site were abandoned, developers seized a chance to use the site for a long-discussed Lancaster civic or convention center.
When the designers got behind the ornate facade, they found as many as 10 buildings cobbled together. Most had been heavily modified over the years as the department store expanded into adjacent buildings. When federal tax credits could not be obtained for the historic preservation of part of the building, it was decided to keep only the face of the original.
Art Morris, chairman of the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority board, believes many people will still see the department store when they walk in the door of the new facility.
"It would be almost impossible for people who are 30 and older not to remember Watt & Shand and what it was like in there," Morris told a reporter this week.
Many will remember the Appel & Weber jewelry store where the Penn Square Grille is now. The hotel reception desk stands at the location of the department store perfume counter, and those with keen memories may recall a favorite fragrance as they walk past.
"For people in this community, it's a great connection with the past," he said.
Morris also sees the facility as important to the future of the city and county. After the hotel and center are established, their economic benefit is expected to be $11 million in personal income and $31 million in sales of goods and services annually.
"In its simplest form, it was a place where people would stay, play and work — one or all of those things," Morris said of his vision for the center.
Standing in front of about 65 uniformed hotel and center workers this morning, Cooley alluded to the economic downturn during which the luxurious facility is opening.
"No businessman would say that this is the economy that you want to open a business in. But maybe, just maybe, the fact that we are bringing 200 new jobs to this community in this economy is the exact right time to open this facility," he said.
Hotel and center workers cheered heartily at the conclusion of the ceremony.
Festivities were delayed briefly when it was reported that one person attending the event had collapsed.
Earlier this week, former state Senator Gibson Armstrong said he never doubted the project's potential.
"We need something like this just for us and, secondly, we have 8 million people coming to the County of Lancaster, but few of them come into Lancaster City. This will push us to the next level," said Armstrong, who began advocating for a convention center in Lancaster as far back as 1985.
Armstrong was instrumental in obtaining state grant funding for the project, which relies heavily on tax dollars and publicly financed debt.
The hotel site is owned by the Lancaster City Redevelopment Authority and leased to Penn Square Partners, the developer. The limited partnership consists of general partner Penn Square General LP, a High Real Estate Group LLC affiliate, and limited partner Penn Square Ltd., LLC, an affiliate of Lancaster Newspapers, Inc., publisher of the Lancaster New Era, Intelligencer Journal and Sunday News.
The project faced numerous legal hurdles over the past decade. Ultimately, it faced 12 legal challenges, all of which were dismissed in the courts.
Former Mayor Charlie Smithgall was an early, vocal supporter of the project. During his eight years in office, he also never doubted the need for the center.
There are few venues in Lancaster to hold weddings or corporate events with more than 250 people, he said.
Early in the planning, Smithgall recalled, there was a meeting of local executives. Many had been taking their corporate events outside the county, but all said the creation of a suitable facility would bring them back.
"The need for it is here," Smithgall said at the time.
Armstrong compared it to the opening of Clipper Magazine Stadium four years ago. In that case, as in this one, he had seen plans and architects' renderings and knew what to expect.
"I knew it was going to be first class, but I don't think people in Lancaster have any idea," he said.
"I think it is going to be a major attraction. Everyone who walks in says 'wow.' "
Staff writer Bernard Harris can be reached at bharris@LNPnews.com or 481-6022. 
