It wasn't just black-tie types poring over downtown's sparkling new gem last week.
Media Center
Related Topics
Related Stories
It was just folks, too.
Proud Lancaster hometownies.
Business people.
Nostalgic shoppers who once patronized the Watt & Shand department store, whose preserved facade fronts the towering Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square hotel.
The frankly curious.
Most gushed over the hotel/Lancaster County Convention Center double attraction, which was the site of a public ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday.
Many interviewed for this story said they'd been peeking through the windows, sometimes literally, for months.
Linda Esbenshade, of East Hempfield Township, said she snapped photos from time to time as the complex progressed.
Other convention centers she's seen throughout the country are "just plain old big rooms" by comparison, Esbenshade said. "[This] is just so beautiful."
The public is being welcomed back for a closer look from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. today. Visitors are invited to take self-guided tours throughout the hotel and convention center, said project publicist Laura Duran. Staff members will be stationed throughout the complex to answer questions and offer information.
People may park for a fee at the Central Parking Garage, 29 W. Vine St., or at the city garages, East King Street, Prince Street and Penn Square.
They may access the complex from the Penn Square Garage or via entrances on East King, Vine and South Queen streets.
The Penn Square hotel/convention center endured 10 years of legal challenges by other hoteliers, construction delays and soaring materials costs before opening for business this weekend.
It's only natural that people should wonder how it all turned out, Duran said.
"A lot of these folks have seen this rise from ashes," said Josh Nowak, marketing director.
Lovely spaceIn recent weeks, observers have watched workers put the finishing touches on the facility that includes a 220,000-square-foot exhibition hall and a 300-room hotel with such amenities as flat-screen televisions and granite countertops.
The facility blends new with old and distinguishes itself from others across the country by cradling within its walls the 1804 Montgomery House and the historic homes of Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith.
Not everyone approved of the changes to the hotel site, which is owned by the Lancaster City Redevelopment Authority.
A young woman and a man who were shading their eyes with their hands and peering into the window of the sweeping, first-floor hotel lobby Friday morning did not venture inside to inspect the vibrant carpeting and burnished pillars.
The man said he used to shop with his daughter at Watt & Shand. He added that he rued the three-year Bon-Ton takeover that began in 1992 and ended with the shuttering of the building.
"I just wanted to show her what a blatant waste" the project is, he said before hurrying off without giving his name.
It will indeed be years before anyone knows whether the $177.6 million hotel/convention center revitalization effort will succeed economically.
Still, out of more than a dozen people questioned by a reporter last week, the man was alone in his opinion.
Cindy Gablehouse deemed the project "exciting."
The Lititz woman, who was shopping with her daughter Friday at Central Market, added that, "It's been fun to come downtown and follow the progress."
Jeff Craig Sr. almost seemed to be walking on air Thursday, despite the bulky backpack he was carrying.
"This is a big deal," said the 49-year-old Lancaster man, who noted that he'd recently had a temporary job unloading banquet furniture at the center. He attended the ribbon cutting along with about 300 other people so he could be part of city history, he said.
"To see all this new stuff down here, wow!"
Craig used to sell newspapers on the square and in the old Watt & Shand Rendezvous restaurant, he added. Now, he said, as a car buff, he's hoping auto trade shows will come the center's way.
"I can't wait to see some of the big conventions."
Chip Snyder, whose family opened the nearby Charles F. Snyder Jr. Funeral Home in 1947, didn't wait until last week to investigate the complex.
"I was bad," he said. "I snuck in the back door one time to look around."
Now, he said, "I'm more than impressed. I'm stunned this is so beautiful."
Charlene Kachnoskie, 57, who was checking out the Penn Square Grille Thursday, said she felt a sense of vindication.
"Over the years," the Willow Street woman explained, "you sat here and watched this building do nothing."
She and her husband, Ed, a Lancaster Newspapers Inc. circulation supervisor, have long tried to be optimistic and counter naysaying about the proposed hotel/convention center, she added.
LNP publishes the Lancaster New Era, Intelligencer Journal and Sunday News. It is an affiliate of Penn Square Ltd., LLC, a limited partner of Penn Square Partners, the developer and the lessor of the hotel site.
The general partner is Penn Square General LP, a High Real Estate Group LLC affiliate.
Esbenshade, the East Hempfield woman at the ribbon cutting, said she remained a yeasayer even as the project missed earlier completion deadlines.
Over the past 10 years, she added, "The city caught up to the convention center" as restaurants, shops and other new businesses grew up downtown.
Whether or not the facility excels, said Rudy and Ann DeLaurentis, owners of Concord House Real Estate, the design already has.
"It's a lovely space," said Ann DeLaurentis, a Lancaster artist whose work will be hung in the facility.
"From an architect's standpoint," added her husband, the way the structure marries contrasting architectural elements is "amazing."
DeLaurentis swept his arm toward the interior street separating the convention center from the Stevens House, which he noted that his family once owned.
The corridor swung gently, reflecting the curved brick exterior of the Montgomery House.
"As your eye travels," Rudy DeLaurentis said, "it all comes together. ... Like a visual jewel."
Jon Rutter is a staff writer for the Sunday News. His e-mail address is jrutter@lnpnews.com.
(326)
