Members of Cranberry Township's Planning Advisory Commission got their first glimpse at tentative plans for a Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in the township at their workshop meeting Monday.

Terry Dammeyer, senior vice-president of construction for Winegardner and Hammons, Inc. in Cincinnati, OH, said the Courtyard would be built next to the already-established Marriott Pittsburgh North on Route 228.

Planned for 164 acres in the Cranberry Woods office park, the proposed Courtyard would feature “select service,” meaning it would hold restaurants and meeting rooms, according to Dammeyer.

It also would be significantly smaller than the full-service Marriott Pittsburgh North, which opened in July 2003. That building, Dammeyer said, has 295 rooms. The proposed Courtyard would have 125 rooms.

Dammeyer said developers always planned to build a Courtyard, a brand of hotels owned by Marriott, on the property. Then, he said, the economy tanked.

“The economy turned our five-year plan into a 10-year plan,” he said. 

The developers will seek preliminary and final approval from the commission at the board’s regular meeting on March 7.

Cranberry’s Board of Supervisors must approve the plans next. Dammeyer said the hotel could break ground on the new site right away if township officials grant final approval.

“Hopefully it will all go well,” he said. ‘This is just the beginning,”