Sidewalks at Issue in Rural King’s Plans for Nittany Mall

STATE COLLEGE — Rural King’s plans to come to the Nittany Mall are still in the works, but there is no current timetable as those plans are being reviewed by College Township.

The home and farm store chain originally planned to enter a long-term lease for the former Sears property at the mall, but is now looking to subdivide and become owner of the parcel. The College Township Planning Commission reviewed the subdivision plans on Aug. 20, but there is an issue about an ordinance that requires a sidewalk on all sides of streets on which the proposed subdivision or land development abuts.

That would require Rural King to construct thousands of feet of sidewalk along Benner Pike, College Avenue and Shiloh Road.

Rural King wants a waiver for the sidewalk requirement. Penn Terra Engineering has created an alternative plan that would extend the sidewalks in and along the mall to Benner Pike in areas that do not have sidewalks.

“Our rationale there is that it provides the pedestrians of the entire mall the opportunity to have a sidewalk that encompasses the entire mall building and it then takes the pedestrians to [Benner Pike to a sidewalk on the opposite side [Benner Pike] at the light, so the pedestrians of this mall can use the pedestrian facilities at the shopping center and over to the Walmart and etc. … Our rationale is that we are providing this alternative that reaches what the intent of the sidewalks are for, which is to provide a realistic, reasonable pedestrian way for the users of the property,” said Chad Stafford from Penn Terra Engineering.

“The precedent is that there are no sidewalks at the McDonald’s at the corner and in the past, there was a requirement whenever they did that at Macy’s.”

After an hour-long discussion about the waiver, the Planning Commission decided to table the discussion, hoping to get a better idea on the costs of the different options for the sidewalks and more input from all the entities involved.

College Township said it would like to hear feedback from the other property owners of the Nittany Mall and the former Macy’s property. Macy’s, which was subdivided away from mall ownership, sold its land to Nittany Centre Realty LLC and Nittany Nassim LLC — both of which are related to mall owner Namdar Realty Group — on March 24.

Planning Commission member Ray Forzait said the future developments, such as the planned Aldi grocery store at Shiloh Road and Benner Pike, would suggest that a sidewalk along Shiloh Road would be necessary.

“We are supposed to be visionary and everybody and everyone can ask for a waiver on sidewalks. … I am saying there should be a sidewalk there,” said Forzait.

He added that the Nittany Mall owners should build the sidewalk around the mall.

“Here is one thing you need to look at. We have a new use for a shell, empty building,” said commission member Ed Darrah.

“And they are going to buy this, and they would be punished for the development if they put sidewalks all the way around where they are not the owner of 90 percent of the property.”

Rural King’s plans for the former Sears location were explained to the Centre County Gazette by Nittany Mall General Manager Polly Welch last September. Welch said Rural King signed a long-term lease for the unoccupied, 82,944 square feet of space starting on Sept. 1, 2019.

Rural King was founded in Mattoon, Ill., in 1960 and now has more than 110 stores in a 13-state area that includes Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

The closest Rural King to the proposed State College store opened in Clearfield in 2016.

The store sells a variety of products, such as livestock feed, farm equipment, agricultural parts, lawn mowers, work wear, fashion clothing, housewares and toys, and offers customers a free bag of popcorn and cup of coffee while they shop. The company’s website says it prides itself on everyday low prices, along with being the industry leader in product knowledge and customer service.

Welsh said the store will also have seasonal outdoor displays outside of the mall.