Casino, regional park and more: What will happen with these Centre County projects in 2024?

This year in Centre County, several new housing developments came on line, new businesses opened and roadwork projects continued (yes, that includes Atherton Street construction). But 2024 may also be a busy year for some long-awaited projects.

We’ve rounded up ten of those projects and what could happen with them next year. Not all are expected to be finalized in 2024, but we may get some clarity on details and timelines. Some have been in the works for years, others will bring something brand-new to the area, and others have drawn controversy and are likely to continue to do so.

Nittany Mall casino

The fate of the proposed mini-casino at the Nittany Mall rests with Pennsylvania’s highest court, and could be decided in 2024.

The state Supreme Court took jurisdiction in September of several legal challenges to the project led by Penn State alumnus and real-estate magnate Ira Lubert. The deadline for his team, as well as state gaming regulators, to submit briefs to the justices is noon Jan. 2.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board voted unanimously in January to approve the license for the planned casino, but it cannot be issued until all appeals are resolved. No casino license decision in Pennsylvania has been overturned on appeal.

Stadium, which lost out to Lubert at a 2020 auction, has asked the state’s highest court to vacate the decision to award the license and has questioned if Lubert properly paid for it.

If the about $130 million project is greenlighted, renovations and construction would begin at the 94,000-square-foot space that was once home to Macy’s.

The nonsmoking casino — which plans to operate 24/7 — would have up to 750 slot machines, 30 table games, a sports betting area, a quick-service food court and a sports themed bar and restaurant with a stage for live entertainment. It’s expected to create at least 350 jobs but has drawn pushback from some community members who worry about a potential increase in crime, gambling addiction and negative impact on the county’s overall well-being.

Whitehall Road Regional Park

Centre County’s third regional park, Whitehall Road Regional Park, located off of Blue Course Drive, finally broke ground in 2022 after two decades of planning, litigation and other delays. The Centre Region Parks and Recreation Authority told the Centre Daily Times in November it’s targeting a spring 2024 grand opening but did not respond to a recent inquiry requesting more information.

According to the website, the current Phase I development includes the following:

• two tournament-sized rectangular, multi-purpose fields with LED sports field lighting for sporting and special events

• two medium-sized grass rectangular multi-purpose fields

• parking

• “We Play Together” playground, which is an all-ability and accessible playground

• 12,000 linear foot walking path

Benner Warehouse

Plans for a massive, 1,080,289-square-foot fulfillment center warehouse on 103 acres of land at the end of Penntech Drive were unveiled in April 2022 — then withdrawn and later resubmitted. It is estimated to bring nearly 700 jobs to the area and be one of the largest private employers in Centre County.

But a timeline has not been announced for an opening and the end-user has remained a mystery. Former Centre County Commissioner Michael Pipe at the time said all they knew is that it’s a warehouse for e-commerce.

In 2022, representatives from SunCap Property Group, the developer of the project, said they were under nondisclosure agreements, and more information about the end user would be announced “in the coming months,” which has not happened.

SunCap did not respond to an inquiry about a construction timeline, end user or when it will open.

Chris Schnure, Subdivision and Land Development Planner for Centre County, said it’s a “bit uncommon” for a developer not to disclose the end user, but there is precedence for this in Centre County.

“For instance, when the plans for the (Benner Township) Giant grocery store were formally submitted, there wasn’t any indication (of) the name of the store. It was only a few months after the plans were submitted did the company send a press release to formally announce Giant as the tenant,” he wrote in an email.

New high-rise(s)

Ever the touchy subject, high-rise buildings continue to dot the downtown State College landscape.

ōLiv State College is scheduled to open in fall 2024 at the corner of East College Avenue and Hetzel Street.

A six-story residential building is under construction at 240 S. Pugh St., the former Days Inn building that also included Mad Mex and Brewsky’s Bottle Shop. Construction had been expected to be completed by June 2024.

And the Mark — which could be the final high-rise of its kind for the foreseeable future — will be located at the corner of East College Avenue and Sowers Street. It would involve the demolition of the Keystone Building, McDonald’s and the Armenara Office Building.

The Fraser Centre, The Metropolitan, The Standard, The Maxxen, The Edge, Rise at State College and Pugh Centre all opened within the past decade.

Bellefonte Elementary

After years of planning, construction is set to begin in spring for the $56 million new Bellefonte elementary school project. The district has been discussing options to replace or renovate the existing Bellefonte Elementary for several years, spending $130,000 since 2016 on architectural firms and consultants alone. The current Bellefonte Elementary lacks air conditioning and is not ADA-compliant, and since it’s a historic building, costs for renovation outweigh the costs to build a new school.

The district held its Act 34 meeting on Dec. 7 to inform the public of the projected costs of the building, student capacity and other expenses. The new school will be located behind the current Bellefonte Area High School, which was purchased for $4.5 million in 2011. Preliminary plans for the building include space for 720 students, a STEM lab, music classrooms, playgrounds and separate parent parking and bus lots.

The district said that the existing Bellefonte Elementary and one undetermined elementary school will be closed once construction is completed in summer 2026. Superintendent Tammie Burnaford could not say which other elementary schools were being considered for closure, but said decisions would be made once the building construction was closer to completion.

New hospital

Penn Highlands State College is set to open in summer 2024 and the $70 million facility will be Centre County’s second hospital. Located at 239 Colonnade Blvd., it will provide medical services including an emergency department and cancer care, as well as outpatient services and a medical office building.

Penn Highlands plans to seek accreditation to become a level 4 trauma center, though that process takes about two years.

About 180 people are expected to be employed at the hospital, not including physicians.

Toftrees redevelopment

The hotel and banquet/event areas at Toftrees Resort in Patton Township temporarily closed in December as part of a $50 million renovation project, and the Field Burger and Tap will remain open within the resort through March.

The redeveloped Toftrees Resort will feature 150 hotels rooms within a 140,000-square-foot resort and surrounding grounds. Don’t expect to see anything but construction in 2024 — the “reimagined” resort is expected to open in 2025, according to Toftrees’ website. As weather permits, the golf course will remain open, according to the website.

State College Area Connector

Planners responsible for one of the largest transportation projects in Centre County history continue to develop what amounts to its foundation.

The state Transportation Department has performed more in-depth evaluations of each of the three routes that advanced from a preliminary study. All three would call for the construction of a new highway between Potters Mills Gap and the Mount Nittany Expressway. Two of the options propose an interchange with state route 45.

PennDOT plans to unveil refinements during a public meeting in the spring or summer, a spokesman wrote in an email.

Harris Township’s supervisors and property owners in the proposed corridor are among those who have raised concerns — including safety, the potential loss of family farms and a decrease in property values — about the project.

Traffic volumes are expected to increase by more than 30% by 2050. Without construction of a new highway, PennDOT wrote in its 124-page report, the existing highway would be bogged down with traffic and become less safe.

Estimated costs range from $432 million to $517 million. Construction is not expected to begin until at least 2028 and is slated to take about five years to complete.

Wawa

In 2023 we learned that Centre County will get at least two Wawas in the coming years.

One Wawa is planned for across from Sheetz in Benner Township, between Dunkin’ and Fulton Bank on the Benner Pike. In March, Lori Bruce, public relations manager for Wawa, said the company is actively looking for sites that would potentially open in 2025. She did not have a timeline available for construction at the time.

The submitted plans show the building will be 6,606 square feet and will have 16 fueling stations within eight pumps.

Another location is proposed off of North Atherton Street at 169 W. Aaron Drive in Ferguson Township. Official land development plans have not been submitted, but a variance request was submitted for the area and the township’s Zoning Hearing board approved it in September.

Mike Spiegel, real estate project manager at Wawa, previously said the store is planned to be 5,330 square feet with six fuel pump stations.

Wawa did not respond to a recent inquiry about the State College area locations or timelines.

Bellefonte Waterfront Project

The Bellefonte Waterfront project, which includes a boutique hotel, parking garage, condos and commercial/retail space along Spring Creek in downtown Bellefonte, has been planned for years and has faced many delays including those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In June, the Centre Daily Times reported the project is “on hold” due to high costs of construction and interest rates. At the time, Tom Songer, a co-managing partner on the project, said they hope to begin construction in the spring of 2024. He said they were doing “value engineering” to see if the cost could be reduced.

Songer did not respond to a recent inquiry about the status of the project.

The entire project includes a promenade along Spring Creek from High Street to Lamb Street, a boutique hotel with 80 guest rooms, meeting rooms, a farm-to-table restaurant and rooftop lounge, a parking garage with 300+ spaces, and a six-story condominium complex, with retail space on the first floor.

Originally, construction was planned to begin in the summer of 2020, but the pandemic stopped that from happening. It’s been delayed several times since then.