With a critical payment deadline approaching, the lead developer behind the Fraser Centre plans will share a project update Monday with State College Borough Council.
Susquehanna Real Estate President Jack Kay is due to speak before the council about 7:30 p.m. His presentation will be part of a council work session; it’ll be held on the Municipal Building’s third floor, 243 S. Allen St.
The $51 million project, to be built at the northwest corner of South Fraser Street and West Beaver Avenue, is roughly three years behind schedule. Last December, council members voted 5-1 to extend — to Dec. 31, 2011 — a deadline for a $1.8 million payment that’s owed to the borough.
That payment, if completed, will finalize the development group’s acquisition of just more than an acre of borough property — the acreage where the project is to take shape. Last December, Kay said he needed the extra time to finalize the evolving project details and to line up financing.
Turbulent economic conditions have taken a toll on the project plans, Kay has said.
They call for a 12-level, multi-use complex with owner-occupied condominiums, a multi-screen cinema, office space, retail space and a residential parking garage, among other features. Meant to help strengthen the downtown and the borough tax base, the plans include a total of 160,000 square feet.
The development group — led by York-based Susquehanna — has allowed the borough to continue operating a public parking lot on Fraser Street until the expected Fraser Centre construction begins. The project plans have received commitments of $4 million in state funding, to be used for the cinema or other public spaces, and $2.5 million in local tax-increment financing, or TIF money.
That TIF money will be put toward the $13 million cinema portion of the project, Kay has said. Tax-increment financing allows a portion of the new tax revenue created by a project to be directed to its debt service.
In other matters at the Monday work session, council members are scheduled to discuss some proposed tweaks to an inclusionary-housing ordinance. A report and discussion on neighborhood sustainability also are anticipated.
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