New stores to open in Fraser Centre

STATE COLLEGE — Within the last two weeks, the Fraser Centre has announced lease agreements with two retailers and a restaurant all set to open the fall.

The building, currently under construction at the southwest corner of Beaver Avenue and Fraser Street, will feature about 50,000 square feet of retail space with 28,000 square feet dedicated to Target.

While State College is home to another Target on Colonnade Boulevard, this will be the first flexible-format store in Pennsylvania outside the Philadelphia area. The flexible store design allows for locations in smaller spaces with product assortments tailored to meeting the needs of local customers.

“We were able to find tenants with a good track record and a good product that we think works well in a market like State College, which is a small community, yet a vibrant one,” said the project’s developer, Gary Brandeis of Real Estate Capital Management.

The Fraser Centre also signed a lease agreement with Swedish clothing company Hennes & Mauritz AB, more commonly known as H&M, for a 19,000-square-foot space. This will be the 21st H&M in Pennsylvania.

H&M offers men’s, women’s and children’s clothing and accessories at affordable prices. Marybeth Schmitt, a spokesperson for H&M, was not available to comment further on the new location.

“Dealing with large, international companies like this is not easy for smaller local developers,” Brandeis said, “so working with them and getting leases done is a very exciting opportunity.”

The Fraser Centre plans to fill the rest of its retail space with a Federal Taphouse, which is a Pennsylvania company with eatery locations already in Lancaster and Harrisburg. The large-format restaurant will be located on the second floor off the lobby of the Hyatt Place Hotel and will feature 100 linear feet of windows.

Co-owners Corey Fogarty and Judd Goodman both studied at Penn State.

“Corey and I both spent many years at Penn State through the ’80s and have always wanted to share our concept with the State College market,” Goodman said in an email. He and Fogarty started the chain in 2012.

The restaurant will have a draft count of 100 craft beers, 10 wines on tap and craft spirits. It is known for making everything, such as its own mayonnaise, from scratch, curing its own meats and using natural fuels such as hard woods and mesquite charcoal, Fogarty said.

Federal Taphouse also specializes in farm-to-table dining by using local products, and Fogarty said they plan on using local farmers and distributors in State College to stock their new location.

The new location ‘will employ 50 full-time and 30 part-time employees. Recruitment will commence in late June this year,” according to a Jan. 15 press release.

The restaurant will have a catering department for on- and off-premise events, as well as serve as the conference and event facilities within the Fraser Centre’s Hyatt Place Hotel, which will be a limited-service hotel with 165 rooms.

“We bleed blue and white,” said Fogarty. “We are both die-hard fans of Penn State. We think the community is a wonderful community, and there are a lot of bar and restaurants in the community, but there is always room for more.”