UPDATE: Crane at downtown State College high-rise to close College Avenue block for 5 days
After come confusion and miscommunication involving PennDOT and a closure on College Avenue next week, State College Borough offered some clarity for motorists Thursday.
According to the borough, a block of East College Avenue — from Hetzel to Sowers streets — will be closed for a period of five days, from Jan. 9 to 13, due to a crane demobilization at the site of a 12-story high-rise under construction. Both lanes will be closed, as well as one sidewalk for pedestrians. (The sidewalk closest to Penn State, on the other side of College Avenue, will remain open.)
A detour will be put in place during that time and should be lifted sometime on Jan. 13, possibly sooner depending on work progress.
For through-traffic, Massaro Construction Group of Pittsburgh plans to implement a detour using Atherton Street, Park Avenue and University Drive. Local traffic will be able to utilize a detour onto Hetzel Street to East Calder Way to Sowers Street and then back onto East College Avenue.
PennDOT emphasized that a private third party is completing this work. It is not part of a PennDOT project.
Chicago-based developer Core Spaces is constructing the Hetzel Street high-rise. According to public building plans, the developer is constructing two floors of retail space with the 10 floors above containing 135 residential units, each holding between one and five bedrooms.
Demolition of existing buildings there began in 2021.
Core Spaces owns several student-housing buildings throughout State College, which it purchased for more than $100 million combined. All acquisitions came since 2019, including buildings like Park Hill Apartments and The Canyon, and current projects include the new building replacing the Days Inn/Mad Mex (oLiv Highland) and the one at the site of the crane (oLiv State College).
State College Borough Council effectively paused the future building of high-rises in October 2022 by rolling back some zoning laws. However, those plans did not impact projects like oLiv State College that had already started.
