Pegula, Shaner team up in Buffalo, N.Y., development
Terry Pegula has gone all-in in Buffalo, N.Y.
That includes the recent opening of a major hotel with the help of a Centre County business.
State College-based Shaner Operating Corp., one of Centre County’s largest employers, operates Pegula’s 3-week old Marriott HarborCenter hotel in downtown Buffalo’s Canalside district.
Pegula’s $200 million, 650,000-square-foot HarborCenter project is a mixed-use development, aligning with the city’s effort to revitalize the Buffalo waterfront. The project occupies a city block formerly known as the Webster Block, and HarborCenter is connected to First Niagara Center, home of the Sabres.
Pegula also has invested billions in the city’s sports teams, including the Buffalo Bills, Sabres and Bandits and the Rochester Americans, since 2011.
The project is a marquee addition to Shaner’s portfolio.
“We obviously are excited,” said Plato Ghinos, president of Shaner Hotel Group. “We have an expertise on larger Marriott International hotels, and we also have one (nearby) in downtown Pittsburgh. It’s funny. Buffalo is like a mini-Pittsburgh — a lot of similarities business-wise and culture-wise.”
The two cities once boomed with industrial business, but have had to undergo reinventions. Pittsburgh’s rejuvenation is one that Buffalo could emulate, particularly with private investors such as Pegula helping to beautify the town.
It also helps that Pegula has friends in high places like Shaner and that there is trust and a common goal between the two to make HarborCenter a destination and hub of activity.
“Lance (Shaner) and Terry Pegula are old friends from their young adult days in western New York, and they hooked up for this development and complex,” Ghinos said. “We’ve undertaken the hotel component of it and participated with the Sabres organization to pick the brand, to assist in the design phase and to be the operating arm of the operation. The perfect recipe came together over the last three years, and we opened it up and had a big ceremony last week. The goal is to make (Buffalo) a larger international, national and regional attraction.”
About 120 people will be employed in the hotel, according to Ghinos.
The hotel features 205 rooms, about 6,000 square feet of meeting and event space, a Panorama on Seven restaurant and bar on the seventh floor and an M Club Lounge for Marriott Rewards customers. Guest rooms include 10 King Corner suites and a 5,000-square-foot presidential suite on the 19th floor.
HarborCenter also has two NHL-size hockey rinks, an off-ice training facility, a Tim Hortons Cafe and Bakeshop, boutique retail shops and a parking structure.
“It’s exciting to see the city rallying behind a project like this and behind Terry Pegula’s commitment to keep the teams here,” Ghinos said.
Shaner also jumped in to support Operation Backbone, founded in 2012 by Sabres executive and Penn State trustee Cliff Benson. The project is an effort to assist the most seriously injured active duty and veteran military members who require an accelerated substitute to their care options not provided by the Veterans Affairs.
Shaner donated $10,000 to Operation Backbone as part of the hotel’s grand opening Sept. 21, and the company will shelter and provide its corporate jet to transport injured active duty soldiers and veterans, their families and doctors from their home cities to medical facilities in five cities — Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Tampa Bay, Fla., San Diego and Boston — where brain and spinal surgeries can be performed.
This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Pegula, Shaner team up in Buffalo, N.Y., development."