Sep. 5--More than 100 community leaders flocked to south Bethlehem today to help Sands Bethlehem celebrate the "topping off" of its 13-story hotel on its $800 million casino complex being built on the former Bethlehem Steel lands.

Even as the casino celebrated raising the last steel beam on its casino and hotel complex, city officials were learning that the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities would hold its convention at the complex in 2010.

The three-day convention held every year in late June is the first official signing by the Sands, and according to Mayor John Callahan, the best indicator that the complex will do what everyone hoped -- grow Bethlehem's role as a destination for tourists.

The convention attracts about 400 of the state's government leaders.

"The League of Cities convention hasn't been in the Lehigh Valley since 1990, largely because we just didn't have the facilities to host it," Callahan said. "This will give Bethlehem a chance to highlight to leaders from across the state all the incredible things happening here."

The topping off ceremony was attended by business, community and government leaders from across the Valley and included speeches by Bradley Stone, executive vice president of Las Vegas Sands, Robert DeSalvio, president Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem and Callahan.

The placement of the pine tree and the American flag comes from a centuries-old custom, primarily by union workers, of topping off a job safely done.

Immigrants brought the custom to the United States, where it was first used for barn-raisings and housewarmings. But by 1900, ironworkers had begun to use it to signify the completion of placing the highest beam on bridges, building and, eventually, skyscrapers.

It's now a custom most associated with the International Association of Bridge, Structural, and Ornamental Ironworkers Union, who happen to be the guys working on the Sands casino site. Some consider it the sign of a job complete without death or injury, but other see it as a good luck charm for the future.

The complex is to include a casino holding up to 5,000 slot machines, a 13-story hotel, a shopping mall with about 40 stores and restaurants, and an events center that can seat many as 3,500 people for concerts and conventions.

If all goes as planned, all the buildings will be enclosed before December, allowing work crews to continue indoor construction through the winter. DeSalvio said the more than 500 workers scurrying about the site now will swell to more than 1,200 as the project races toward a July 1, 2009 opening.

The hotel is scheduled to open within a few months after the casino and the events center is slated to be open by Jan. 1, 2010.

-- Reporting by Matt Assad, The Morning Call

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