Hotel
During the early 1980s, as Scranton struggled with 13 percent unemployment and a slumping economy, city leaders conceived of a redeveloped station as tourist attraction and rallying point. "Basically, we're looking for people to come to Scranton who would not come to Scranton normally," Mayor James McNulty told the Associated Press in 1982. "We want to give the hotel a dimension as a destination instead of a way station, so this can be some place to go."[8]
The building was later purchased by MetroAction, a Scranton Chamber of Commerce corporation that focused on downtown development. Its redevelopment, the "linchpin of Scranton's downtown revitalization program", was ultimately spearheaded by The Erie Lackawanna Restoration Associates, a group of private investors, and funded to the tune of $13 million through a combination of federal, state, and municipal money, plus donations from banks and other local businesses.[11] The building was renovated as a hotel, furnished by Bethlehem Furniture Manufacturing Corp., and renamed The Hilton at Lackawanna Station.[12] The renovation work was designed by Buchanan Ricciuti & Associates Architects, Inc., and won a 1984 Design Honor Award from the Ohio chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
The building reopened on New Year's Eve 1983,[6] ushered back to life by some 650 partygoers dancing to the Guy Lombardo Orchestra under the direction of Art Mooney.[13][14]
The station renovation was just half of the railroad-related repurposing meant to enliven downtown Scranton; the other half was Steamtown USA, a museum being built on the site of the old Lackawanna railyard and shops. On February 3, 1984, McNulty stood before the station to welcome the first of Steamtown's exhibits to the city: a 350-ton Canadian Pacific steam locomotive chugging up with a baggage car and five passenger cars. "Welcome to the first day of Scranton's new future," McNulty told a crowd, which cheered.[15]
In 1993, the hotel was purchased for $4 million by DanMar Hotel Inc.,[16] which shifted its hotel-chain affiliation two years later from Hilton to Radisson.[4] DanMar began trying to sell the building in December 2004, to the University of Scranton, many of whose visitors stayed at the hotel, but university officials formally declined the offer in May 2005. DanMar ultimately sold the building for $7 million to Akshar Lackawanna Station Hospitality LP, a unit of El Centro, Calif.-based Calvin Investments LLC, which owned about a dozen hotels at the time. The contract was signed in July 2005 and the sale was completed in October. The new owners pledged to spend $1.5 million to $1.7 million on renovations, to wrap-up in summer 2006, but the work actually took place in 2007 through 2009.[16]
The hotel was the setting, though not the actual filming location, for "Dwight's Speech" in the American television show The Office. Many of the show's cast members stayed at the hotel during the October 2007 fan convention and again during the show's public wrap party in May 2013.
Passenger train service to Scranton may be restored by future phases of the Lackawanna Cut-Off Restoration Project, which could extend New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) service from New York City and Hoboken via the Lackawanna Cut-Off.[17][18] The trains would pass the old Lackawanna Station building and pull in at a new Scranton station on Lackawanna Avenue.[19]
