A revised plan for the former Autoport property in State College shows reconfigured and additional retail and restaurant space compared to a proposal submitted earlier this year.
Project engineer PennTerra submitted the revised preliminary land development plan for the South Atherton Street property on behalf of owner South Atherton Real Estate 1 LP to the borough on June 12. It is tentatively scheduled for review by the State College Design Review Board on July 14 and Planning Commission on July 15, borough senior planner Daniel McCombie said.
Unchanged from the earlier iteration for what is dubbed the Autoport District is an unnamed, 6,538-square foot convenience store with a fueling canopy and 14 pumps at the southeastern end of the property.
To the west is a three-lane access drive with a proposed signalized intersection on South Atherton Street.
Phase 2 includes a cluster with a 2,027-square-foot end cap restaurant with drive-thru — which a commercial real estate agent for the property in April identified as being leased by Starbucks — three 1,500-square retail spaces, an 1,895-square-foot restaurant and two outdoor patio areas, along with parking. The initial plan identified one restaurant and five retail spaces of varying square footage for this building.
The second phase also includes another building that has an 1,850 square-foot restaurant with a drive-thru, an 1,850-square-foot retail space, outdoor patio area and parking. The earlier version showed a 5,484-square-foot restaurant with drive-thru ordering and pick-up canopies.
Newly added is a fourth building set further back on the property and positioned at a northwest-to-southeast angle as phase 3. It has two retail spaces at 2,025 square feet each, two at 4,050 square feet each and a 4,400-square-foot bank with drive-up ATM.
The new plan also shows parking and an existing storage building at the back of the property for phase 4.
A retaining wall is proposed around the perimeter of the property, as well as a multi-purpose path and a bus stop along South Atherton Street. A deceleration lane would also be added for westbound traffic on South Atherton.
The initial plan was originally scheduled for review in March, but put on hold because the developer intended to submit a revised version.
The property has sat vacant for more than a decade since the Autoport, Pennsylvania’s oldest motel, closed in December 2015. The owners faced foreclosure and auction since 2014 and declared bankruptcy earlier in 2015 before selling the property to South Atherton Real Estate 1 LP, which is led by Montoursville-based real estate investor Gregory Welteroth, for $2.1 million.
The first movement to rejuvenate the site came in 2020, when plans were submitted for an 80,000-square foot, four-story building on a parcel separate from the new plan at the northwest end of the site. It would have included a 122-room Home2 Suites by Hilton and eight apartments, but the plan was reviewed but was subsequently withdrawn by the developer.
In May 2024, numerous trees were cleared from the length of the site, and a month later Bennett Williams Commercial real estate agency listed parcels on the property for lease as part of a “new, high-end retail development.”
