Site Work Getting Underway for Long-Planned Bellefonte Waterfront Project

After years of planning and delays, work on the Bellefonte Waterfront project is getting underway.

Fencing was installed this week around the empty lot on West High and Dunlop streets as site work begins for the project, which will include a six-story boutique hotel and restaurant in one building and a parking garage, retail space and residential condos in another.

“This milestone follows Borough Council’s work to finalize the Developer’s Agreement, which made it possible for construction to move forward,” Bellefonte Borough wrote in a social media post on Wednesday.

Activity will ramp up in the coming weeks as crews “bring in machinery and equipment, install erosion controls, and prepare the site,” according to the borough.

Tom Songer, of developer Bellefonte Waterfront Associates, has said that the hotel and parking garage will be constructed at the same time and will take about 12 to 14 months to complete. Once the parking garage is finished, construction of the condos on top of it will begin.

The 75-feet-tall boutique hotel will be a yet-to-be-announced national brand. It will have a first-floor, farm-to-table restaurant with seating for about 100, as well as covered outdoor seating, and will offer a “rooftop experience,” according to previously discussed plans.

The other building will have 268 parking spaces on three levels, along with the retail space and condominiums.

Songer said in May that he has interest from several tenants for the retail space, including “a local grocer thinking about an indoor farmers market, perhaps.” He added that Big Spring Spirits “is interested in moving their retail operation over to the Waterfront” and a jeweler also has expressed interest in a space there.

The property will have a brick walkway connecting the hotel and garage/condo building and a promenade between the buildings and Spring Creek. The brick-paved promenade, Songer said, will serve as a public gathering and walking space and will adjoin the outdoor seating for the restaurant.

Dunlop Street also will become a two-way, public through-street as part of the project. The reconstruction, which is funded by a $1.5 million federal grant, will include a mid-block crossing and 30 on-street parking spaces. As part of the agreement to dedicate Dunlop Street as a public right of way, the borough will convey parking revenue from the spaces to the Waterfront owners for five years, and the Waterfront owners will be responsible for street maintenance.

The project on the former site of the Bush Hotel across from Talleyrand Park has been beset by delays since it was first proposed in 2018 by Songer and hotel partner Mark Morath.

They originally planned to start construction in 2019, the year they finalized acquisition of the property from the Bellefonte Area Industrial Development Authority. That became 2020, then COVID hit followed by a surge in construction costs, and years passed with hopes for a start that has now finally materialized.

With construction now getting started, the borough said it will share updates with the community as the project advances.

“This is the kick-off to realizing the full potential of Bellefonte’s Waterfront, and we look forward to a vibrant future for our beautiful downtown,” the borough wrote.