Plans for War Memorial Authority to potentially manage conference center take step forward

Apr. 23—The Cambria County War Memorial Authority on Monday approved having its solicitor prepare a document that outlines conditions for the organization to potentially manage the City of Johnstown-owned Frank J. Pasquerilla Conference Center.

Johnstown City Council previously gave City Manager Ethan Imhoff the same go-ahead.

The parties will now work out the final details.

A broad tentative understanding already calls for a five-year contract with an option for the authority to purchase the facility, located at 301 Napoleon St. in downtown Johnstown, at the end of the agreement.

Johnstown would cover utilities and capital costs. The War Memorial Authority would run the center on a day-to-day basis.

The Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, Johnstown Area Regional Industries, the Johnstown Redevelopment Authority, the Cambria Regional Chamber and Visit Johnstown would pay a combined $190,000 annually to help offset expenses.

Also, according to Michael Parrish, the authority's solicitor, "there's a component that Cambria County has agreed to contribute up to $25,000 towardthis project, but only to cover losses. ... Other than that, losses would be on the entity running it."

Three present board members — Chris Glessner, Marty Kuhar and Ken Jubas — voted in favor of moving forward during a regular monthly meeting. Nicole Waligora abstained because she works for Visit Johnstown. All other members were absent.

Jubas said he is "comfortable with what we've discussed and our options," but added that he wants to "proceed with caution."

"It's out of our comfort zone, but I think that's where we have to live to make things happen in this community," he said. "I think it's a worthwhile opportunity."

Crown Conventions Center Co., a subsidiary of Pasquerilla Enterprises L.P., managed the center from the time it opened in May 2003 until Feb. 28, 2022. It then sat vacant for months.

Top Dog Productions and Flair of Country Catering and Event Planning hosted more than 80 functions between September 2022 through February, but uncertainty surrounded the venue's future, so bookings significantly decreased.

"It's going to take probably a year until you get some of those customers back," said Jean Desrochers, general manager of 1st Summit Arena @ Cambria County War Memorial, who would be involved in any potential operations of the conference center.

"But also you need a marketing campaign for weddings. We would use a lot of our other events here and spin off particular events over there — in other words, a multi-purpose usage of that facility.

"Phase one is assessing the condition of the building. Phase two is creating and marketing and then booking the events. We're not going to wait for events to come to us. We're going to create events."

Desrochers emphasized: "You're starting over. The inconsistency of the building over the past few years scared people away, so it's going to take some time to get them back."

Glessner, the authority's chairman, spoke about potentially rejuvenating activity at the center: "I think the first phone calls that need to happen is, we had a slew of business leaders sit in here and tell us how it's our duty to step in and really implore us to dive in here. I think those are the first phone calls.

"Those businesses should hopefully be booking their Christmas parties and their summer events and things here right away. Help us help them, right?"