With hotels under study in the Strip District and possibly as part of a city slots casino, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato wants to take another look at the need for the 500-room hotel planned next to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center Downtown.

Dan Onorato -- "I think now is the time to evaluate what hotels we need and who's going to build them."

During an interview last week, Onorato said it makes sense to re-evaluate the $104 million convention center project, which has been stalled by the lack of funding, in light of possible proposals for other hotels throughout the city.

"That has to be evaluated before a shovel goes into the ground," he said.

Onorato is calling for a review at a time when occupancy rates at the major hotels Downtown languished below 60 percent for the first five months of the year and when new hotels are under consideration in the Strip District and possibly as part of the stand-alone slot machine casino to be built near or in Downtown Pittsburgh

The Buncher Co. is considering a hotel on property it owns between the Veterans Bridge and 11th Street in the Strip District, near the convention center. Tom Balestrieri, Buncher president, said the firm should know by Labor Day whether it intends to pursue the project. It is still trying to determine how many rooms would be involved.

"In our business we are always looking at things that we may want to pursue. That's one of the things on our radar screen," he said.

Then there are the hotels that could be tied to the stand-alone slots casino near or in Downtown.

MTR Gaming, the Chester. W.Va., company that owns Mountaineer Racetrack & Gaming Resort, is planning to build a hotel as part of its proposal for a stand-alone slots casino with up to 5,000 machines.

The firm is looking at a number of sites throughout the city, including the Strip District and the North Shore near the Del Monte plant.

Company spokesman John Brabender said MTR sees the casino and hotel development as an opportunity to create a synergy effect to complement the convention center and other regional assets. Such tie-ins could help to make Pittsburgh a true destination point for tourists.

"The building of a casino in Pittsburgh should do more than just benefit the builder and the licensee," he said. "It should create a sizeable amount of urban development and it should also play off all regional assets [to create a destination point]."

Whether the hotel could serve the convention center is something MTR wants to discuss with local officials, Brabender said. The exact number of rooms has yet to be determined.

Merrill Stabile, president of Alco Parking Corp., said he is keeping the option open for a hotel as part of his plans for a casino near PNC Park on the North Shore. His proposed four-acre site is adjacent to a 198-room Marriott SpringHill Suites hotel. That, obviously, will factor into his decision.

"We're talking with the experts to see if it would make sense to do more," Stabile said.

David Strow, a spokesman for Harrah's Entertainment Inc., said it was too early to say whether a hotel would be part of its plans for a proposed casino at Station Square. A 396-room Sheraton Hotel currently occupies one end of the retail and entertainment complex.

"We'll design what makes sense for the Pittsburgh market and Station Square," he said. "You don't want to just take a template and slap it down. You build what makes sense for that particular market."

However, hotels, usually with a minimum of 200 rooms, are commonly part of Harrah's casino projects. Of the 43 casinos the company operates, 33 have hotels on site.

Strow cautioned that Harrah's typically fills its hotels with its own customers, ones who have earned rewards or points through customer loyalty programs. Just how many rooms would be available to the general public is uncertain.

A Penguins spokesman declined to comment on whether a hotel is part of the team's plans for a casino near Mellon Arena. The Penguins are hoping to secure the license for the slots casino and use part of the revenues to build a new arena.

In its planning, the Philadelphia Gaming Advisory Task Force, which was set up to review the impact of two slots casinos in that city, is assuming that a 400-room hotel eventually would be built as part of the complex.

Ron Porter, co-chairman of the Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force, said members are not assuming -- at least not at this point -- that a hotel would be built as part of the casino.

"I've heard that some of the proposals may contain a hotel within the complex, but, quite frankly, at this point, I don't have any information about the content of any bid," he said.

Nonetheless, Onorato said the need for the convention center hotel should be reviewed in light of the possibility of a casino hotel and others being considered in the vicinity of Downtown.

"I think now is the time to evaluate what hotels we need and who's going to build them," he said. "We might have hotels being built that we didn't know about 12 months ago, and the beauty is it's going to be done with private money."

The proposed 500-room convention center hotel, which would be publicly subsidized, has been in limbo for nearly two years because of funding shortfalls.

In legalizing slot machine gambling in Pennsylvania, the Legislature earmarked $44 million from those revenues to finance the public share of the hotel, which would be built by Station Square owner Forest City Enterprises.

Revenues from the first slot machines probably won't start flowing to the state until late 2006 or early 2007.

With the passage of the slots law, the city-Allegheny County Sports & Exhibition Authority and Forest City Enterprises renewed negotiations to complete a deal last fall, but still do not have a final agreement.

Tom Cox, executive secretary to Mayor Tom Murphy, said the administration is willing to take another look at the hotel at Onorato's request.

But he added the sentiment in the industry is that it's not so much the extra rooms that make the hotel important, but the hotel's close proximity to the convention center.

"We are told that rooms alone are not what the convention center needs," he said. "What they need is a convention center hotel that can be booked by the convention interests."

Cox said he did not know whether that issue could be solved if some of the other hotels are built.

"One of the considerations should be, 'Does the convention business need something different from just an increase in the number of rooms?' I don't know the answer to that. I just know what I've been told," he said.

Joseph McGrath, president of the Greater Pittsburgh Convention & Visitors Bureau, said proximity is important. He pointed out that the number of hotel rooms in the larger metropolitan area have increased by more than 50 percent over the last seven years, yet that has not had an appreciable impact on convention business.

"It is the concentration and it's under-one-roof concentration," he said. "That is the preferable product and it is the product of today."

Convention planners, he said, like having one large bank of hotel rooms available at one location and run by one operator rather than having to deal with multiple sites, different rates, different owners, and trying to satisfy the varying whims of delegates.

"They will always opt for under one roof, if possible," he said, adding he's open to an evaluation if that's what Onorato wants.

Barbara McMahon, president of the Greater Pittsburgh Hotel Association, whose members are divided over the proposed hotel, supports Onorato's idea.

She said the room occupancy rate at the six largest city hotels -- the Omni William Penn, the Renaissance, the Hilton, Pittsburgh Marriott City Center, the Westin Convention Center and the Sheraton Station Square -- was at 56.3 percent through May. That's down almost two points from the first five months of last year.

From June 2004 to May 2005, the average occupancy was 62.2 percent. For the industry as a whole, it's in the 70s, she said.

"I believe that Dan Onorato is absolutely right on the mark. If a private investor is going to develop a casino hotel, depending on its location and regardless of its location, absolutely, the need for the convention center hotel should be reviewed," she said.

The recently held Senior Olympics did not do much for city hotels, she said. Nor, she added, have bookings for the Bassmaster Classic later this month been that strong so far.

"Neither created the compression that we wanted or anticipated," she said. "They were staying in suburban hotels."

That's despite the fact that the average rate Downtown over the first five months is $115 a night, down $3 from the same period last year. The 12-month rolling average is up only $2.

"I know everybody is trying to do the right thing [regarding the convention center hotel], but I think people, before they spend all this money, need to look at the total picture," she said.

Some in the hotel association believe a convention center hotel would continue to drive down occupancy and room rates, making it more difficult for all hotels. But others argue that it would help to attract more and bigger conventions, benefiting all hotels.