Allenberry Resort opening expected to bring $10 million annually to Midstate economy

BOILING SPRINGS, Pa. (WHTM) – The Allenberry Resort and Playhouse in Cumberland County is having its soft opening this week after being sold last year. It’s expected to bring a big boost to the local economy.

Work is going on right now at Allenberry Resort and should have an estimated $10 million economic impact in the area each year.

Several buildings are open now, including the Stone Lodge. Most of the area is still being renovated.

“People are here, and they’re spending money in our community,” said Jonathan Bowser, CEO of the Cumberland Area Economic Development Corporation.

Bowser believes the resort reopening will encourage spending not only at the resort but in the entire Midstate.

“A lot of time, when people come to the Midstate, they come to Gettysburg for Civil War,” Bowser said. “They go to Harrisburg to the Civil War Museum. They go to Lancaster for shopping and to really the experience kind of the Amish culture.”

“We see an opportunity to do something similar but much more focused on leisure,” said Michael Kennedy, co-owner of the Allenberry Resort.

Kennedy and the other owners bought the resort before it went to auction last year. They’ve put more than $1 million into improvements. The resort hopes to attract a wider demographic, including younger people and families.

“We’re going to have zip lines and ropes courses and skeet and trap shooting,” Kennedy said. “We look at this project and we say, ‘This is the place to where there’s always something to going on, or you can come and do nothing at all.’”

The entire resort is expected to be open in late June.

This video appeared on ABC27 on April 12, 2017.