Hotels race to build as Chambersburg-area tourism industry booms
CHAMBERSBURG -- Developers continue to eye Chambersburg's potential to host more motels.
Four hotels have been added to the Exit 17 area of Interstate 81 in the past decade, bringing the total to 14 on the I-81 corridor at Chambersburg. There's room for more.
“The borough has been approached by a nationally-known hotel chain who is considering sites in the borough for another hotel near I-81,” Chambersburg Borough Manager Jeffrey Stonehill said. “They say demand for overnight accommodations in Chambersburg remains high and vacancies low.”
Read:Dollar General stores indicate good things for Franklin County in 2018
Visitors spend more than $20 million a year on overnight stays in Franklin County, based on the room tax collected by the Franklin County Treasurer’s office.
The leisure and hospitality industry has been the fastest growing sector of the local labor market. In November the sector employed 5,600 people in the county, 700 more than a year earlier.
“Franklin County is fortunate to have many markets feeding the hotel industry,” said Janet Pollard, executive director of the Franklin County Visitors Bureau.
People spend the night to attend family events and to visit friends. Parents stay when visiting their children at college. Vacationing Canadians stop over on their way to the Carolinas. Families travel to youth sports events.
“We have a big business clientele,” said L. Michael Ross, president of the Franklin County Area Development Corp. “There are far more visitors to our county than we realize. There are people routinely spending a week or two” to do business with TB Woods, Manitowoc, Volvo, JLG Industries and other companies.
The visitors’ bureau has slowly and steadily built brand awareness of Franklin County, according to Pollard.
“We have built an awareness of what to see and do in Franklin County,” Pollard said. “We have a little bit of everything in Franklin County – history, festivals, art, theaters. You can do something every weekend from September to November.”
Chambersburg’s IceFest, too, is an established attraction after 16 years.
More:Best Bets at IceFest: 5 must-do activities
“One of sponsors of IceFest been a hotel,” Pollard said. “The IceFest is an opportunity to get away. We promote in the D.C. area. There are people who come and stay and head home Sunday morning.”
Martin’s Golden Roll Visitor’s Center in Chambersburg, The Conococheague Institute near Mercersburg and Joyful Arts Studio in Greencastle were listed among Huffington Post’s 35 Great Immersive Tours and Experiences in Northeast.
“We’re more than a gateway to Gettysburg,” Ross said. “We have our own amenities that make us attractive.”
“It’s about experiential tourism,” Pollard said. “People want to have an experience. It matters to Millennials who they travel with.”
Millennials (born 1982 to 2004) travel 35 percent more than Generation Xers (born 1961 to 1981) and 45 percent more than Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964), Pollard said.
“Millennials are a little different,” she said. “They like immersive experiences. They like their motels. They like to get up and workout because that’s what they do every day. It’s the evolution of people in our society.”
Millennials like their “boutique hotels,” Pollard said. Brand loyalty programs are popular with consumers.
“Travelers are seeking out the brands they like,” Pollard said. “We see developers trying to respond to the market. Franklin County is a growing area. Development is going to bring about more development.”
Ross said he is surprised that a hotel developer is exploring the Chambersburg area. A more promising opportunity could be in the Greencastle area and near businesses in Hagerstown, Md.
The Chambersburg area may be approaching saturation, Ross said.
Pollard said she hopes a developer will attach a small event center to a hotel before the market is saturated.
The center would be smaller than a convention center, but larger than a banquet room. The center would cater to social, military, educational, religious and fraternal organizations. It could host a builders’ show.
Read:Baseball fan buys local baseball legend Nellie Fox's namesake bowling alley
“When you have over 350 people, your options become limited very quickly,” Ross said.
Green Grove Gardens near Greencastle seems to do a great business in hosting events, he said. As the county grows there’s a need for more exhibit space and larger banquet space.
The area between Exit 17 and Exit 16 in Chambersburg hosts seven hotels:
- Four built since 2000 near Exit 17 are Best Western, La Quinta Inn and Suites, Candlewood Suites and Country Inn and Suites.
- Three built prior to 2000 near Exit 16 are Red Lion Inn & Suites, Days Inn and Travelodge.
An eighth hotel, SpringHill Suites by Marriott, is under construction on Gateway Avenue behind Keystone Ford.
Another six hotels are located at Exit 14 at the south end of Chambersburg.
Developers conduct a market study before taking on a hotel project, Ross said.
“Hotels are not built on speculation that there might be a need,” he said. “Lenders want to be assured there’s enough demand for what you’re proposing. They looking at the same question: Is the market saturated? Lenders will give them a lot of scrutiny. They don’t blindly accept the studies.”
The county last year raised the pillow tax, or room tax, on a night’s stay from 3 percent to 5 percent. The county collected $810,700 last year. The treasurer’s office retains 4 percent as an administrative fee. The remainder is split -- 80 percent to the visitors’ bureau, which promotes local tourism, and 20 percent to the county, which awards tourism grants.
The typical annual wage for a person working in the accommodations and food service sector in Franklin County was $13,952 in 2016, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. It’s at the lowest end of the scale for annual pay.
A lot of jobs in the industry pay an entry-level wage, and work is often part-time, according to Ross.
“The hospitality sector creates job opportunities for young people to enter the workforce or to supplement their income,” Ross said. “The industry might be the best job training industry we have. The sector provides the opportunity for young people to hone employ-ability skills they’ll need as they go through life and look at other opportunities.”
Stonehill, with Chambersburg borough, said another hotel developer also may be exploring the borough.
"Any site chosen would need to meet local zoning rules," he said, "and any traffic impact would require the developer to propose engineering improvements to mitigate traffic directly caused by their development."
Jim Hook, 717-262-4759