The Rosalia Hotel, under construction at the site of the former Miners National Bank in downtown Pottsville, is about six months from completion. But the developer says demand is already strong enough that he’s preparing for an expansion.
Bill Metzinger told members of the Pottsville Redevelopment Authority that he’s willing to invest at least another $2 million more into the project to add two floors to the building.
The $2 million investment would hinge on winning a state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant, which supports large-scale economic development projects and requires a 50% local match.
At Wednesday’s Redevelopment Authority meeting, Pottsville Area Development Corp. executive director Savas Logothetides asked the board only for a letter of support for the grant application, which is due on Sept. 23.
If successful, the Redevelopment Authority would serve as grantee and Metz Properties 3 would be its sub-grantee.
Logothetides told board members that a hotel study conducted in Pottsville back in 2018 recommended a 50-room hotel for Pottsville.
Metzinger believes adding two floors to the hotel-in-the-making would cost at least $4 million but likely would be closer to $5 million. Current plans have the Rosalia as a 32-room hotel. Adding two floors would create an additional 24 rooms.
Logothetides said that approvals on RACP grant applications are “at the whim of the Governor” so it was important to get this one submitted for the Rosalia project in the tight window that closes next week.
The last approvals took 18 months. However, the next round could come sooner or it could take longer.
Metzinger told Redevelopment Authority members that he’s already seeing a need for an expansion.
“It’s something we wanted to do down the road but it sort of got thrust ahead to look at doing this right now because the process is so long,” Metzinger said. “This is sort of the starting point.”
He said that despite the hotel project being under construction and it very much looks that way, there are already seven weddings booked at the venue in 2026. Metzinger credited the husband-and-wife team of Nick Hair and Hannah Corbacio, to whom the hotel is being leased when it’s finished, for coming up with a vision to sell prospective wedding parties.
“Hannah and Nick, especially Hannah, are doing spectacularly with getting people to sign up for weddings and taking deposits for a building that is a little dirty and dusty and under construction. She sells the vision for what this place is going to look like in six months,” Metzinger said.
He added that prospects from Pittsburgh, Scranton, and Lancaster are looking to have their weddings at the new hotel once it’s opened. One problem, however, is that the current plans for the Rosalia don’t have enough rooms for larger wedding parties.
Metzinger said one prospective client had a wedding party of 250 people and needed 100 rooms. He said he couldn’t recommend the overflow stay at the Ramada down the block from his project so they’d have to stay at hotels at Highridge business park off Interstate 81.
“The most astonishing thing is, and I never thought I would say this, people are making Pottsville a destination wedding. It’s a surprise,” Metzinger added.
Expanding the Rosalia will not be much of a challenge, he said. When the bank annex of the former Heritage Bank was built in the 1990s, it was engineered to sustain an expansion. A third and fourth floor can be stacked on the annex while maintaining the footprint of the current property and not disrupting the aesthetic of the original Miners bank building.
Subscribe to Coal Region Canary
Get email updates from Coal Region Canary by becoming a subscriber today. Just enter your email address below to get started!Support Coal Region Canary
Like our reporting and want to support truly local news in Schuylkill County? Your small donations help. For as little as $5, your contribution will allow us to cover more news that directly affects you. Consider donating today by hitting the big yellow button below ...