Pennsylvania's Parx Casino gets unanimous approval to build 300-room, 13-story hotel

The Bensalem Township Council unanimously approved Monday Parx Casino's multimillion-dollar hotel project. The casino plans to build a 300-room, 13-story hotel in its Street Road complex in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, featuring a rooftop restaurant and space for weddings, banquets, and conventions. Parx hopes to begin construction on the project later this year, with a scheduled opening date sometime during 2025. 

The Bensalem Township Supervisors unanimously approved preliminary and final land development for the Bensalem Racing Assoc. & Keystone Turf Club at its meeting Monday, clearing the way for a hotel that had been planned at the 452-acre Parx property for more than a decade.

"This takes us to the next level of being a destination," Council Vice President Joseph Pilieri said, as reported Patch News. "There will be no casino in Pennsylvania that will compete with us."

Michael Meginniss, the attorney representing Parx Casino at the council meeting, said the hotel which will be located at 3001 Street Rd., will include an attached walkway to Parx Casino, 32 guestrooms on 11 floors, and a high-end restaurant on the top floor with "great views" of Philadelphia.

The hotel is also expected to feature amenities such as a fitness center, spa, and coffee shop. One of two restaurants will be located in the lobby, while a higher-end concept will take up one-third of the space on the top floor. It will look toward the Center City of Philadelphia and seat about 260 guests. Higher-end suites, including the presidential suite, will also be located on the top floor of the hotel.

Rendering for expanded Parx Casino and Hotel

"The hotel is a plus for the casino. People stay in other places, so this will help on that end," Pilieri said, as reported by the above-mentioned media. "This will bring more people to Bensalem."

Council members asked about branding. Parx representatives said the hotel will be branded as the "Parx Casino Hotel" but that architects will use Marriott as a brand standard in terms of planning. Both restaurants will also be in-house with no branding. John Dixon, COO of Parx Casino, said Parx is planning to build a show kitchen in the lobby restaurant for opportunities to bring in celebrity chefs and other culinary guests.

The banquet hall will occupy a portion of the first two floors of the building. It will seat 800 people at full capacity but will be able to be partitioned into multiple rooms for smaller meetings. An event lawn will be adjacent to the hotel and banquet hall for use for outdoor events.

The space will allow Parx to host meetings, banquets, weddings, and other events on the property, according to Dixon. With its smaller size, the banquet hall will focus particularly on drawing local and regional events rather than large national conventions.

Parx will join other Philadelphia-area casinos with a hotel. Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia opened at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex in early 2021. Valley Forge Casino Resort also has overnight accommodations on its property in the Casino Tower and Stardust Tower.