'We're going to build a hotel and parking garage'
The agreements needed to bring a hotel and parking garage to downtown Butler are essentially finalized, according to Mayor Tom Donaldson.
Representatives from developer J.S. Capitol and the city officials on Tuesday signed off on a number of loans and agreements during a nearly four-hour meeting at the law office of Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham in Butler.
“It’s a go,” Donaldson said of the Centre City project. “We’re going to build a hotel and parking garage.”
Donaldson said all the agreements are in place, but the attorneys for all sides would review the contracts one last time.
“There may be a couple loose ends tomorrow,” Donaldson said Tuesday. “But its done.”
J.S. Capitol, developer of the hotel, closed on three loans, including a $3.4 million construction loan with NexTier Bank and a $900,000 tax-increment financing loan.
It also finalized its partnership agreement with the city redevelopment authority, which will be a 25 percent owner in the 76-room Marriott Springhill Suites hotel to be built at the corner of Jefferson and McKean streets.
The closing allows the city to start its neighboring parking garage, which will join the hotel as part of the Centre City project. The garage has 239 spaces.
Donaldson said PNC Bank today will sell the garage bonds that will fund the garage, locking the city into the debt.
The deals concluded a decade-long process for the Centre City project, which includes the already completed Rite Aid Pharmacy on Main Street.
