16-05-2025
Wilkes-Barre hotel project moved from former Hotel Sterling site to old Martz Trailways building on Public Square
May 15—WILKES-BARRE — A long-awaited hotel and convention center originally planned for the former Sterling Hotel site will now be located in a vacant office building on Public Square, project officials announced Thursday.
During a press conference at Wilkes-Barre City Hall, Mayor George Brown, along with developer Hysni 'Sam' Syla and project engineer George Albert, unveiled plans to use the old Martz Trailways building at 46 Public Square as the location for the $20 million project.
"The hotel will be a milestone for Wilkes-Barre. The project will attract tourists, business travelers and large events, while creating good jobs for our residents. It's the perfect fit for our city's vibrant downtown and strategic location, making Wilkes-Barre a go-to destination for Northeastern Pennsylvania," Brown said.
Renovations are expected to begin in the fall of this year, with a grand opening slated for mid-fall 2026.
According to project officials, the hotel will feature 110 rooms and a 10,000-square-foot banquet hall capable of hosting 500 guests.
Amenities are to include a fitness center, restaurants and a business lounge.
According to Albert, the building has over 100 surface parking spaces located in the rear. Additionally, more parking is available at a public parking garage on North Main Street.
Albert also said the hotel will be under a national brand, but it was too early in the process to release information on the name.
Plans for the Sterling site are now once again up in the air, but Syla told the Times Leader Thursday that he is developing new plans for the site that should be announced soon.
H&N Investments LLC originally purchased the property from the city in 2018 and later announced plans to construct a Gateway Hyatt Place Hotel and Conference Center there.
Over the years since then, updates on the project came in fits and starts, with the last one in December 2024, when the developers were approved for several variances by the Wilkes-Barre Zoning Hearing Board to build a parking garage and lot on the proposed site.
Stephen Barrouk, a commercial real estate broker, who Albert said is now no longer involved with the project, told the Downtown Residents Association back in March that he expected to break ground on the project in a few months.
However, Albert explained at the press conference that the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the dynamic of the hospitality business, causing supply chain issues and labor shortages that are still affecting the industry today.
"The hotels essentially shut down, ultimately making it almost impossible or very challenging to obtain financing for the project and ultimately resulting in cost increases of almost a hundred percent for construction," Albert explained.
The engineer said what was once a $20 million project ballooned to over $40 million this year.
"Ultimately, over time, the project scope there got chiseled away," Albert said. "We had a big rooftop bar, we had multiple restaurants, we had a huge banquet facility. And as the dollars rose and the cost increased, we continued to squeeze out the scope of that project to only being a hotel with a small internal restaurant."
There also wasn't adequate parking at the Sterling site and Albert said construction of a parking garage on the property would have compromised half of it.
However, with the recent acquisition of the building on Public Square, project officials are planning to return to their original, grander plans for the project.
In closing, Albert thanked Brown, city council and the community at large for helping move the project forward for the last roughly 6 years.
"We want to see the city succeed and this is our goal," Albert said.
Syla also expressed his gratitude to the mayor and the city, as well as to Sen. Marty Flynn Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski for their continued support.
"Today I am very happy. Not just for me, for myself, which I do something. But six years ago, I promised here to everybody, to people, we're gonna do hotel," he said.
Additionally, Flynn expressed his commitment to securing state resources to ultimately finish the project. He said the hotel will fill a demand that has yet to be fulfilled in the city.
He continued, "You know, the downtown is really buzzing, but the investment in downtown has been historic year after year for the past 10 years. And we — this will be a wonderful addition to downtown Wilkes-Barre and we're interested in getting this to the finish line."
Pashinski expressed similar sentiments.
"The bottom line is, I think what's going to occur with this development is gonna be very, very important, very special to Wilkes-Barre and also to the surrounding areas," he said.
According to previous reporting, 46 Public Square was previously scheduled for online auction beginning April 7.
The building once housed the Martz bus terminal before it moved to the nearby James Conahan Intermodal Facility and also was home to Mimmo's Pizza, which closed last April after 42 years.
