Lebanon Expo Center & Fairgrounds set to grow again with new twin-like facility

Pending various permit approvals, construction on the latest addition to the Lebanon Valley Exposition & Fairgrounds is slated to tentatively commence this winter. 

The expansion project’s estimated cost is between $5.5 million and $6 million. 

The 40,000-square-foot “twin” arena to the complex’s North Hall is being divided into two segments, according to expo president Harry Bachman. The first phase calls for 15,000 square feet to be constructed, with the other 25,000 square feet to be built as funding becomes available. The expo complex is located in North Cornwall Township.

Read More: Lebanon city, Expo Center, & businesses seek millions in development grants

The expo’s board of directors has also decided to build another facility to house swine during the Lebanon Area Fair, the expo center’s premier week-long event that’s held each July. 

Bachman said that project is “way down the road,” noting that the building will have other to-be-determined uses throughout the 51 non-fair weeks of the year.

In the meantime, the focus for now is on the new building. The construction timeline is dependent on all permits being approved and bids being announced and then awarded, according to Bachman.

“We’re in the permit stage, permitting and all that. And they have their own timeframe. So we’re hoping to get that all going,” he said. “That somewhere we can start doing some site work because there is a lot of site work that’s going to be done.”

If construction begins this winter, the plan is to have the building open for business in 2027.

“We won’t be in it by the 2026 fair. They’re going to have to just stop (work) wherever they’re at and then go on from there,” Bachman said. “We want to try to get a lot of the site work, well, permitting is the first thing, because we have to get water to the place, we got to get sewer to the place, and that all takes a lot of planning, and it takes a lot of digging to get all of those lines in.”

Bachman said the expo center received a $4 million grant through the commonwealth’s Office of Budget for Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, but those dollars are only paid upon project completion. That means expo officials have to pay for the project upfront before being compensated later with RACP funds.

According to the state website, RACP is a program that partially funds “regional economic, cultural, civic, recreational, and historical improvement” projects that have “a regional or multi-jurisdictional impact, and generate substantial increases or maintain current levels of employment, tax revenues, or other measures of economic activity.”

Bachman said the funding requirement led expo officials to be judicious with the grant in deciding to downsize from the original plan to ensure they don’t overspend the allocated dollars. He added expansion to the original 40,000-square-foot specifications can occur later. 

The plan is for the new building to run north/south on the east side of the complex near the existing North Hall. That will require moving the stormwater retention pond from the east side of the complex to the front entrance along Rocherty Road. 

“The stormwater retention pond is moving so until they get that all piped out and ready to go, we have to change the stormwater management thing, so right now it’s a lot of ifs,” said Bachman.

Bachman said the new building will basically be a mirror image of North Hall. The interior will contain air conditioning, restrooms, snack bar, and storage – which Bachman said the facility needs more of – as well as ample electric, wifi and audio/visual capabilities, and its own sound system.

“It’s gonna be like a twin to it. It’s gonna have overhead doors in several places. Everything will be peaked inside. And then because if you have a 20-foot door, you have to have everything (inside) above 20 feet or else you can’t have a 20-foot door,” Bachman said. “We just had a John Deere show and some of the big farm equipment that’s out there right now takes a 20-foot door to get ’em in the building. So we gotta keep it (the entrance) high.”

Additional amenities include a free span interior, meaning there will be no indoor support pillars – just like North Hall – that typically run from floor to ceiling and block sight lines. 

“You’re gonna have big girders. If you look in North Hall, they go up and over. So you’re gonna have to have a pretty good footer in the ground in order to hold it,” Bachman said. “So there’s a lot of drilling and digging that will be going on, when they get started and before they do anything else, and then we’ll go from there.”

The loading/unloading area on the east side of North Hall will remain so that tractor-trailers and other vehicles can still unload into that building and its nearby twin. 

“We don’t get a lot of tractor-trailers. It’s not a warehouse. So there will be parking availability there for fair volunteers,” said Bachman.

Bachman estimated 30 to 40 parking spaces on the east side of North Hall will be lost to the new building. Those spots will be replaced, and then some, near the north entrance to the new building. The south side will be connected to East Hall, which currently houses swine during the fair. (That building will eventually be used for storage and some offices.)

The roadway that runs to the back of the complex will be rerouted to allow vehicles to access the rear of the fairgrounds, he added. 

He noted the new facility will serve multiple purposes, allowing expo officials to offer the building for standalone events while others take place elsewhere on the grounds, or for larger shows to expand their events into the new arena. 

“That’s 40,000 more square feet we can rent. And if we can bring more people in or the fact that maybe we’re losing somebody that only needs one building that size. We can stick them in there and still have a bigger deal over here that’s going on,” Bachman said. “We also have a need with all the people who are saying they want more space. Some of them that come in here, I’ve talked to them and they say, ‘Hey, we gladly could use another building that size.’ They say they would rent that building immediately because their shows are outgrowing themselves.”

The new building will enhance the economic vitality of Lebanon County, Bachman said.

“Everybody sort of laughed when they decided to build a hotel over here. But they’re full all the time. And there’s a lot of events here that go over and they book a bunch of rooms,” he said. “Now they’re building a second hotel, which I’m sure you’re aware of. And that’s going to be one of them Extended Stays, I understand. Now who would have thought that you needed two hotels back here off of Route 72? But the people are finding it. And by being here, they like the idea of just going back and forth across the road.”

Read More: Lebanon Area Fair supports local tourism

Bachman said more than just hotels benefit from the fairgrounds growing in size. 

“If you take all the restaurants in the area. These people, a lot of them in the evenings will go out and get something to eat. You got the (Blue) Bird. You got the Quentin Tavern. Now they’ve got a Chick-fil-A if you want that kind of a meal, and all of the other ones, too,” he said. 

Pat Kerwin, expo director, said the complex currently hosts over 100 shows annually.  

The nonprofit corporation’s RACP application noted that the expo center “is a signature asset of Lebanon County – hosting over 60,000 visitors a year and providing significant local and regional economic impact.”

Read More: Lebanon fairgrounds, gem of the county, undergoes renovations

The expo center and fairgrounds currently feature 75,000 square feet of indoor exhibition space, over 70 acres of fairgrounds, livestock and equestrian facilities, a dirt track with bleacher seating, an outdoor pavilion, kitchen, and hook-ups for vendors and campers.

Jennifer Kuzo, president of county tourism bureau Visit Lebanon Valley, envisions the new building helping to grow tourism throughout Lebanon County.

“The expansion of the Expo Center is ultimately a good thing for tourism in the Lebanon Valley,” she said. “The additional space will allow the expo to engage larger groups and events from out of the area, which in turn will support our local hotels, restaurants, and attractions. This could be a win-win for all tourism and hospitality-related businesses.”