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July 8, 2008

Plans for new hotel to be presented

By Nancy Lowry

Plans for a $5 million hotel complex will be presented Monday night to Pulaski township supervisors.

Developers Tom and Adam Guiher anticipate constructing a 64- to 72-unit complex with a swimming pool, meeting rooms and banquet facility at 738 Pine Glen Road, at the intersection of Route 422.

The father-and-son developers, who own Living Treasurers Animal Park on Route 422 in Slippery Rock Township, plan a log cabin-style development in three stories around an open courtyard. Each room, Adam Guiher said, will have an interior entrance and balcony to the outside.

Guiher, who relocated to the area four years ago to join in his father’s business interests, said he would like to see the building under roof by winter and a spring opening.

“We still have a lot of hurdles to clear before we can break ground,” Adam Guiher said.

At the supervisors’ meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, the Guihers will request conditional-use approval to construct and operate a motel at their site, which Guiher said is zoned for commercial use. Guiher also must obtain the consent of the township’s municipal authority to tie into the sewer lines.

For the past nine years, the Guihers also have owned and operated Log Cabin Hotel & Suites in Donegal, near Seven Springs Resort.

“The Pulaski project will be more elaborate,” Guiher said.

He added that he believes the hotel will be an affiliate of the Best Western chain.

“Best Western is not a big corporate franchise that pushes for identical hotels. It’s not your typical hotel chain.”

Guiher noted that each establishment in the chain is independent and buildings are unique, often reflecting the local flavor of the area where they operate.

“What is consistent is the quality of each operation,” he said. “This will be the first new hotel to come into this area in a long time.”

Guiher said a study of the area indicates more hotel rooms are needed. His project, he said, could be the first of many that will be riding the coattails of Valley View Downs Harness Racetrack and Casino, which is to be built by Centaur Inc. in nearby Mahoning Township.

Lawrence County, he believes, is poised for monumental growth as a result of the racing and gaming complex.

William Taylor, chairman of the Pulaski Township Municipal Authority, said Guiher attended a meeting several months ago to ask what steps are required to tap in to the township’s sewer line.

The authority will meet next at 7 p.m. July 15 at the municipal building.

Noting that the property in question is the site of a single-family house, Taylor said he believes the developer will need an on-lot system to collect waste water and a pumping station to forward waste generated at complex to the township’s system.

“We won’t be holding him up but our engineers will have to review his plans,” Taylor said.

The township’s sewer system, which began accepting tap-ins in 2006, has sufficient capacity to accommodate the hotel. It is not a part of the New Castle Sanitation System and not subject to new customer limitations imposed by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

“We built a system that can handle in excess of 140 single-family homes, and we have the capacity to expand,” Taylor said. He added that the system, which has treatment plants in Pulaski and at the municipal building, operates efficiently.

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