Rivers Casino hopes to break ground on hotel this summer

Rivers Casino hopes to break ground this summer on a hotel to be built next to its North Shore property.

“The design is finished,” Rivers General Manager Craig Clark said Monday. “We hope to move forward soon.”

The casino plans to request a May hearing before the Pittsburgh Planning Commission, Clark said.

After clearing the permitting approval process, construction would take about 16 months. The 214-room hotel would create 1,400 union construction jobs and 105 permanent jobs, Clark said.

The hotel would be located next to the Carnegie Science Center and be connected to the casino. It would be situated to obstruct as little of the Ohio River view as possible, Clark said. Last year, casino officials said they planned to use glass walls on the first and second floors of the lobby to help with views and to allow river access through the hotel.

A hotel operator's name and other details have not been released.

During the past two years, more than 6,000 new hotel rooms have been planned as part of 55 projects across the Pittsburgh region. More than 1,500 are part of hotels recently opened, under construction or being developed Downtown or the greater Downtown area — which includes the North Shore.

The Rivers Casino hotel would add to that count.

Jason Cato is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7936 or jcato@tribweb.com.