Hershey Entertainment & Resorts wants to open another hotel near top tourist attractions in Derry Township.
Pending approvals, the company, which oversees Hersheypark, Hersheypark Stadium, the Hershey Lodge and The Hotel Hershey, hopes to construct Hershey Hotel at the Hershey West End, a mixed-use development.
Plans submitted to Dauphin County Planning call for a 75,380-square-foot hotel with four floors and 130 rooms. A surrounding parking lot would include about 163 spaces. The proposed hotel is located along West End Avenue, which is slightly southwest of the Englewood Barn and Cocoa Beanery, according to plans.
The Hershey Trust Co. is building the village-style development between Waltonville and Bullfrog Valley roads adjacent to the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
It’s advertising the development as a “dynamic new destination for the town, one designed to serve the community for generations to come.”
The Trust, which is the financial engine of the Milton Hershey School, owns the 245 acres where work is underway. Hershey West plans call for multi-family apartments, single-family homes and 55+ homes along with retail and commercial space including the upscale, limited-service hotel and restaurants.
West End is being developed in phases, starting with the commercial development along West End Avenue followed by the hotel and then multi-family, 55+ homes, and lastly single-family homes, according to an email update this spring.
The hotel is in the early stages with no dates announced for construction or an opening.
“Our plans are still in the developmental stage at this point,” said Quinn Bryner, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts spokeswoman. “We will be happy to share details at the appropriate time once the project is finalized and the plans have been appropriately reviewed and approved.”
The hotel’s preliminary and final land development plans still need to go before Derry Township’s Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors for approval. Ken Gall, the Trust’s director of real estate, said the plans were tabled at the May 7 Planning Commission meeting.
