A Monroeville church plans to resurrect the former DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Monroeville and create a boutique lodging site.
The multimillion-dollar renovation announced Tuesday will feature a theme paying homage to Western Pennsylvania legends in industry, sports and entertainment, church and hotel officials said.
Two Trees Global LLC of Monroeville, the new owner of the DoubleTree, plans to convert the 52-year-old hotel into the Legacy Hotel & Conference Center, said Pastor Bruce Schafer of Grace Life Church. Schafer is founder and president of Two Trees Global, a hotel and real estate company.
“What we call it is a premier lifestyle boutique property that is connected to a theme called legacy. We want to look at the lives and legacies of people in Western Pennsylvania” such as Fred Rogers, former Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw, former Pittsburgh Penguins player and owner Mario Lemieux and others in the sphere of influence in arts and entertainment, Schafer said.
Two Trees Global has partnered with MBE Hospitality Management LLC of Kalispell, Mont., to manage the property, which is adjacent to the Monroeville Convention Center and shopping mall, which was recently sold to Walmart. The renovation of the 52-year-old hotel — including furniture, fixtures, plumbing and electrical systems — could cost more than $10 million and take about a year, said Eric Bahme, president of MBE Hospitality.
The developers plan to begin work on the 13-story, 190-room hotel in the next few months, Bahme said.
The announcement was welcome news for Monroeville officials.
“Monroeville is optimistic about the potential addition of a renovated full-service hotel next to the Monroeville Convention Center. (It) is fully booked for 50 out of 52 weeks each year, and many of these events necessitate high-quality lodging options nearby,” said Alex Graziani, Monroeville municipal manager.
Amy Schafer, a lead pastor at Grace Life and Bruce Schafer’s wife, envisioned a hotel with floors with themes featuring the Steelers, Penguins and local celebrities and television programs that feature their stories.
“We are going to attach legacy lives, legacy stories …. the stories of the men and women that have changed and shifted the culture in Western Pennsylvania. We’re going to keep them alive,” Amy Schafer said.
Once the hotel is operating, Bahme said, he anticipates there will be between 60 and 70 jobs created in housekeeping, maintenance, the front desk and restaurant. More employees likely would be needed when there are large banquets.
While it will be a property independent of the national chains — such as Hilton, Marriott and DoubleTree — Bahme said the hotel could be branded as one of those national chains in the future.
Open for events
Two Trees is open for conferences, banquets, weddings and conventions, but not for individual lodging, said Jon Ward, chief financial officer of Grace Life Church.
Two Trees acquired the hotel in November for $5.2 million from One 101 Mall Blvd. Owner LLC, Schafer said. The nondenominational church formed Two Trees Global to acquire the hotel. Grace Life has been leasing the former hotel ballroom, where it got its start 27 years ago, as the site for its religious services and the second floor of the building for its offices.
The church decided to buy the hotel when it learned that expanding its building along Route 22 in Monroeville and to create adequate parking for its growing membership could cost an estimated $15 million, Schafer said. Grace Life still owns its church building, formerly a Levin Furniture store, at 4761 William Penn Highway in Monroeville.
“We do marketplace ministries, from daycare to restaurants to trailer parks to real estate development. We figured a church would spend multimillion dollars with a building that sits empty six days a week,” but decided it would be better if we were able to use it the rest of the week, said Schafer, whose church has 3,500 members and a campus in the North Hills.
Two Trees Global could end up investing $15 million into the creation of the legacy hotel, Schafer said.
As the for-profit company affiliated with the church, Two Trees Global can generate revenue from the hotel operations and other business ventures, Ward said.
“This helps us and allows us to give more money to the mission” of the church, Ward said.