Live! Casino Pittsburgh unveils new $2.5 million venue

Although The Venue Live! was just unveiled at Live! Casino Pittsburgh Thursday morning, it has already hosted its first event.

Sean Sullivan, general manager of the casino, said the Hempfield venue was used for a diversity coalition dinner, and parties already are booking the space.

“Last night, I came in here looking for John, our event guy, and he had just locked down a wedding for 2023,” Sullivan said. “We’re in active booking mode.”

The $2.5 million venue is over 7,000 square feet with capacity for 350 seated guests or 650 in a cocktail-style layout.

The space is part of the existing casino site at the Westmoreland Mall. Casino officials said there are no plans for further development at the site.

Sullivan anticipates the space will be used for weddings, holiday parties and corporate, social and fraternal organization events.

The space also will be used for events hosted by Live! Casino. On Aug. 6 and 7, the casino will host Legends in Concert, a celebrity musician impressionist show.

Sullivan said the casino is offering a promotion for weddings to kickstart the booking process.

Following the closure of the Ramada by Wyndham Greensburg Hotel and Conference Center on Route 30 in January of 2021, Sullivan anticipates the site will add some of these employees to its 500-person staff.

State Rep. Eric Davanzo attended the unveiling and thanked the casino for being a “great neighbor.”

“It’s a great day in Westmoreland County to open up a venue like this,” Davanzo said. “To really be able to bring (people) into the heart of Westmoreland County and showcase Westmoreland County is really a great thing.”

Related:

• New event space to open at Live! Casino Pittsburgh
• Demolition of Hempfield's Ramada underway

The venue is also an opportunity to further expand into the community, according to Ed Evans, director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the casino’s parent organization, Cordish Gaming.

“We’ll have some diversity events here I’m sure, but for me, it’s more about generating a sense of family in the space — almost like an extended living room where people can come out and enjoy themselves,” Evans said. “We’re business-focused for sure, but we’re heart-led, and community is in our DNA. It’s what we do.”

After pushing the unveiling date for the venue from the end of June to mid-July, Sullivan said he is excited to see the space swing into action.

“It’ll give us now an answer to all the phone calls we get. We always say ‘Well, we’re going to open,’ Sullivan said. “It’s official — today, we’re open.”