Contents of Hempfield Ramada to be auctioned Dec. 5

For John Mizikar, seeing the shuttered Ramada by Wyndham Greensburg Hotel and Conference Center in Hempfield go is like losing a good friend.

Mizikar, 58, of Mt. Pleasant Township spent a large chunk of his life at the 42-year-old hotel, working his way through the ranks and paving his way to a career in the hospitality business.

“It’s just a building. But to me it was more than just a building, it was where everything started for me,” Mizikar said. “Kind of weird walking through all of this.”

The Ramada, which quickly became a community staple after it opened in 1978, closed last month to make way for Menards, a Wisconsin-based home improvement store. Officials with Mark Ferry Auctioneers of Latrobe have been working to prepare for a Dec. 5 auction that will clear out the property so the building can be demolished.

It is unclear when demolition of the building might begin, or when construction of Menards will start.

Over the past few weeks, items in the kitchen, bar and swimming pool area have been consolidated and moved to the ballroom and storage rooms in preparation for the sale. Prospective bidders will have the opportunity to walk through the hotel, viewing rows of pots and pans, catering equipment, decorations and more.

Items from 146 hotel rooms and from the bar where local musicians played will be available for purchase.

Mizikar has been volunteering with Ferry, helping to clear out storage rooms while reminiscing about his own history at the hotel, which became home to fundraisers and business meetings, as well as a place for locals to eat, drink and dance.

“We were walking through the closets and different storage spaces and just seeing different things I haven’t seen in years and it just comes back, to remember all of that,” Mizikar said. “Or different stories behind different articles, different pieces of furniture, or different areas of the hotel.”

Mizikar started working at the hotel in 1980, when he had just turned 18. He worked off and on at the facility for 26 years, spending his last few as director of catering.

“I knew people here and you work with people for so long they’re like family,” said Mizikar. “That’s the way it was back then. I just enjoy this business, it gets in your blood, and I kept coming back to it.”

Years of history

During his time at the Ramada, Mizikar saw the building across Route 30 from Westmoreland Mall undergo several ownership changes. The hotel officially opened as the Sheraton Inn, owned by Greensburg-based Adam Eidemiller Inc., Mizikar said.

The family owned the property until 1999, when it was sold to Crown American Hotels based in Johnstown and it became the first to hold the name Sheraton at Four Points, Mizikar said. After that, the facility changed hands several times, finally owned by a group from Los Angeles called Greensburg Hospitality.

Having the largest ballroom between Pittsburgh and Seven Springs, the Ramada was quickly utilized for state police training; meetings for Elliott Company, Westinghouse and Kennametal; and fundraisers for nonprofits such as the American Red Cross and March of Dimes.

Mizikar saw his share of weddings, often helping multiple generations of families plan their big day.

“Things are changing,” Ferry said. “That’s the biggest venue in the area for weddings and conventions and things. There’s no place that rivals that now. … That place was a staple to the whole area.”

When the coronavirus pandemic hit the region in the spring, “It was like the rug was pulled out,” Mizikar said. “It was almost like everything came to a screeching halt.”

At that point, Mizikar said his days were filled with phone calls from people asking what would happen to the events they had planned there.

“I did my best to make sure nobody was left feeling like they were just kind of cut off,” he said. “It was my job to just kind of put the peoples’ mind at ease up until the end when I was here.”

By mid-April, managers, including Mizikar, were let go. Around that time, food and beverage at the hotel shut down as mitigation orders tightened to help slow the spread of the virus. By the end, the hotel was just taking room reservations, its event space sitting empty.

“One thing for us that has been great in this hotel is if your room sales were down, our food and beverage sales, banquet sales were up,” Mizikar said. “So they kind of balanced each other. If banquet sales were down, then the rooms carried. But when covid hit and all the restrictions were put on … we couldn’t make it alone on just rooms, as a hotel.”

Mizikar said the hotel closed for good in October.

“I would probably say it was covid that put the final nail (in the coffin),” he said.