College Township Council on Thursday gave conditional approval to plans for a privately-owned acute care rehabilitation hospital at Penn State’s Innovation Park.
Developer Catalyst Healthcare Real Estate plans to construct the two-story, 56,000-square-foot facility at the northeastern end of Innovation Boulevard for PAM Health, a national healthcare provider based in Cumberland County.
The 42-bed in-patient physical rehabilitation hospital will have approximately 120 employees and an average patient stay of about 12 days.
“It’s typically a patient coming from a hospital — either complex surgery, stroke, could be a spine event, brain injury — and they’re not quite ready to go home but the hospital is ready to admit them out of the hospital,” Phil Schuck, executive vice president of Catalyst, said when the plans were introduced in 2025. “This is kind of a transitionary step to get better and then go back to their homes.”
Council had reviewed the plans on multiple previous occasions, and most of Thursday’s discussion centered on to requests related to the township zoning ordinance.
Catalayst and project engineer Stahl Shaeffer asked that the project not require the construction of transit facilities — a bus pull-off and shelter — because it does not meet the criteria in the ordinance and as a rehabilitation hospital “is not anticipated to function as a significant pedestrian or transit generator,” Stahl Shaeffer project coordinator Michael Vaow wrote in a letter included in Thursday’s agenda. The Centre Area Transportation Authority also has no plans at this time to extend fixed route bus service to the east end of Innovation Boulevard
Council agreed to the request, but directed staff to include a mechanism for PAM Health to contribute to cost-sharing for transit facilities if and when future development in the area triggers the need. Members noted that the ordinance states significant pedestrian traffic and transit demand is as determined by council.
“It’s not an unreasonable request,” council member Eric Bernier said.
Schuck said the project developers are “not going to the mat at all on this issue by any means,” adding that “it just wasn’t required, so we didn’t put it in.”
The developers also requested a waiver to a requirement under township ordinance for construction of a sidewalk adjacent to the Park Avenue connector road, saying that it is a high-volume vehicular corridor that has no existing sidewalk that would provide continuity for safe pedestrian linkages
“The installation of sidewalks along the frontage would result in a disconnected segment that would not meaningfully enhance pedestrian access or safety,” Vaow wrote.
Council denied the request, which requires Catalyst to build the sidewalk or, more likely, pay a fee-in-lieu at a linear-footage rate established by the township. Council member Gretchen Brandt agreed it did not make sense to construct a sidewalk there, but said the sidewalk ordinance intends for waivers to be a “last resort.”
A fee-in-lieu would go to funds set aside for filling in gaps in the pedestrian network, and could potentially be used for extending sidewalk if Innovation Boulevard is built out further to the east.
“It’s not really asking for something above and beyond what you knew was a requirement when you decided to move forward with this plan,” Bernier told Schuck.
The facility will be located on a 5.8240-acre, university-owned parcel, for which council previously approved a subdivision from a larger, 16-acre tract. The township also approved a minor extension of the Regional Growth Boundary and Sewer Service Area to encompass the property.
Penn State’s Board of Trustees in February 2025 approved a ground lease of the property to PAM Health.
Under the terms of the agreement, Penn State will receive a lump sum payment of $875,000 at the start of the initial 50-year lease followed by $67,518 per year, with a 5% escalator every five years. The lease will also include two 15-year renewal options.
PAM Health is led by founder and Penn State alumnus Anthony Misitano. The Misitano family and PAM Health in 2024 donated $25 million to Penn State’s Beaver Stadium renovation project.
