True to its commitment at the May 2019 $1.3 billion purchase of Bethlehem’s casino complex, Wind Creek Bethlehem is advancing a planned 270-room hotel and 35,000 square feet of meeting space expansion. Groundbreaking is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2020, with completion in the third quarter of 2021.

The first step is to pitch a transfer of City Revitalization and Improvement Zone (CRIZ) acreage to the Bethlehem Revitalization and Improvement Zone Authority (BRIA). The CRIZ designated acreage would be switched from land held by the casino at the ruined parking lots along First Street just west of SteelStacks to the project location adjacent to the existing casino hotel tower and Wind Creek Event Center.

At a Feb. 5 press conference in city hall, Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez and Pennsylvania Senator Lisa Boscola lent their support to the transfer of acreage to the site.

“This is a new chapter in the development at this site,” Donchez said.

Community and economic development director Alicia Karner explained the transfer would take about two and one-half months, as BRIA approval, public advertising and state review and approval requirements are addressed.

The CRIZ designation will benefit both the project and city, according to Donchez, Boscola and Wind Creek spokesperson Julia Corwin.

In what represents the largest CRIZ project in Pennsylvania to date, the designation will allow Wind Creek to advance the hotel and conference center as a $100 million project, instead of a $90 million basic one, providing for luxury amenities such as a spa, bar and enhanced ballrooms, according to Corwin. The three ballrooms in the conference center will be able to be consolidated to one large conference room for conventions and trade shows.

Donchez explained that Bethlehem also stands to reap financial benefits that could be used to extend the Southside Greenway, purchase new Christmas decorations, and make overall streetscape improvements on the Southside.

Boscola said leveraging the state dollars through CRIZ will “strengthen the expansion” and “redeveloping the site is critical to the future of Bethlehem.

“All eyes in Harrisburg are looking here in Bethlehem to see how we’re handling the CRIZ,” Boscola said.

Wind Creek officials are projecting that the expansion will add another 80 jobs and construction will provide several hundred trades jobs.

Corwin indicated that the expansion helps to achieve Wind Creek’s goal of becoming a “luxury resort to meet and drive future growth in the Mid-Atlantic region.”

Boscola declared that the use of CRIZ would give Wind Creek the “glitz and the glamour” to accomplish that.