A new four-story hotel and two new restaurants are planned for a busy West Shore area right off of Interstate 81.
Florida-based developer Elysian Partners plans to resubmit plans to Hampden Township for the hotel and two restaurants on Mount Zion Road in Cumberland Technology Park near Technology Parkway and Wertzville Road. Kevin Brown, a partner with Elysian Partners said that the project previously received preliminary approval but due to a change in plans, the company is resubmitting plans for the project.
Plans for the project call for more than 100,000 square feet of space and more than 160 parking spaces.
There are no tenants yet for any of the three separate free-standing projects and because of that at this point there is not timeframe at the moment either, Brown said.
The planned hotel would be near a Holiday Inn Express & Suites that also sits at the front of Cumberland Technology Park.
Brown says that the area is the perfect place for a hotel not only because of regional tourism but because with UPMC Pinnacle’s West Shore Hospital there is now a lot of people coming to the area to provide services to the hospital as well as other area businesses and organizations, and that will only increase when Penn State Hershey opens its new hospital off of Wertzville Road as well. And of course Brown also points to the location’s short distance to Interstate 81 as another good reason for a hotel in the area.
“Interstate 81 carries a tremendous amount of travelers,” he said.
A Belco Community Credit Union branch is also planned for Mount Zion Road. Belco Community Credit Union will build a branch on a vacant lot at 4600 Mt. Zion Drive. Belco hopes to start building the 2,292-square-foot facility this spring and the opening is planned for the fall.
The area near Wertzville Road and Technology Parkway has expanded greatly over the last several years. Large facilities like UPMC Pinnacle West Shore, the Ortenzio Cancer Center, and the Giant and Weis grocery stores have been built over the last several years and Penn State Hershey is also planning a new hospital in the same area. And with the larger facilities have come a lot of smaller businesses to complement the larger facilities like Burger King, BB&T, Supercuts and Taco Bell.
Members 1st Federal Credit Union is also building a new 172,000-square-foot headquarters in the same shopping complex as Giant Food, which is expected to be built in 2021.
Cumberland Technology Park where the hotel is planned includes UPMC Pinnacle’s outpatient center, cancer center and its hospital as well as Holiday Inn Express & Suites, PennLive/The Patriot-News, Delta Development Group, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Hampden Township Public Works, Harmony at West Shore, Novitas and Hoover Rehabilitation Services. With the addition of the West Shore Hospital and Penn State Health’s future hospital, Brown says he definitely could see more medical related office space in the future. And that’s why his company is also planning to eventually submit plans for a 40,000-square-foot medical-related office building between Hoover Rehabilitation Services and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
In addition to the hotel and restaurant project and the office building project, Brown says that there is still about 60 acres of land that could still be developed in the Mechanicsburg-area office park.
