According to a study commissioned by the county, Live! Casino Pittsburgh is possibly the ideal place in the area for a meeting and hospitality development, and in the upcoming years, it may welcome an adjacent convention center and hotel.

The Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce allocated $25,000 last December to commission a study to determine the potential locations for a convention center and hotel.  Hempfield Township, the location of Greensburg's Live! Casino, provided a $5,000 grant and other donations to support the independent study.

The survey was carried out by the international commercial real estate services firm CBRE, which is headquartered in Dallas.  According to CBRE's findings and suggestions, which TribLive was the first to get, the Westmoreland Mall should house a hotel and meeting area.

Researchers suggested building or implementing a 200-room hotel and a 50K-square-foot convention center at the Westmoreland Mall or close by.  According to CBRE, over 120 new employment, more than $16 million in local taxes, and about $270 million in direct revenue would be produced by such facilities during the first ten years.

Casino Pittsburgh Live!

Live! Casino Pittsburgh is a Category 4 "satellite casino" that opened its doors in November 2020.  The Westmoreland Mall's former Bon-Ton department store was converted into a 24-hour mini-casino with 750 slot machines and 40 live-dealer table games thanks to a $150 million investment from Baltimore-based Cordish Companies, which already runs a stand-alone, full-scale casino in Philadelphia.

Live! Pittsburgh is the most profitable of the commonwealth's four satellite casinos.  In 2024, the Westmoreland casino made over $116.2 million in gross gaming revenue, of which $101.7 million came from its slot machines.

Cat. 4 casinos can only have 40 tables and 750 slots.  Although Live! Pittsburgh encourages its users to use Live!'s online FanDuel Sportsbook, they can also house retail sportsbooks.

The Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Westmoreland County.  The county seat, Greensburg, lies about 20 air miles southeast of Pittsburgh's downtown, Pennsylvania's second-biggest city.

Benefits of Convention Centers

Following the closure of the Ramada Hotel and Conference Center in Hempfield in 2015, Westmoreland has been left without a convention center or designated meeting space.  Convention centers controlled by local and state governments have long been believed to contribute to the growth of the local economy.  But in recent years, that way of thinking has evolved.

Last November, Robin Hunden, a destination real estate consultant, told The New York Times that the majority of the 175 large conference facilities in the US are losing money.  According to her, the enormous venues, which require millions of dollars annually for upkeep, are vying for less and fewer major events.

MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibits) events produced over $119 billion in economic activity in 2023, according to the US Travel Association.  Compared to 2019, when conventions were estimated to have generated $139 billion in economic activity, it is a 14% decrease, or $20 billion.

Large-scale conferences and their planning, however, were put on hold during the COVID-19 epidemic.  The business is slowly recovering, but even in high-profile areas like Las Vegas, fewer than six million people attended conventions last year, which is still 10% fewer than in 2019.