HFL Apartment-Building Plan Gains Momentum, Recommended for Green Light

Plans for a seven-story student-apartment building at Hetzel Street and East Beaver Avenue won support — and no dissent — Thursday from the State College Planning Commission.

In a nonbinding vote, all commissioners present recommended that the borough staff formalize approvals for the plans, at 477 E. Beaver Ave. Only members Ann Bolster and Ron Madrid were absent.

Generally, other commissioners said, the plans appear solid. Drawings show a building shaded mostly in brick-colored tones, with a seam-metal roof and landscaping.

Downtown-based HFL Corporation has proposed the building, which would replace the four- and five-story brick office buildings now at the northwest corner of Hetzel Street and East Beaver Avenue. The property is owned already by HFL; one of the existing buildings houses the HFL headquarters.

But those existing buildings are mostly vacant, HFL Chairman Henry Sahakian has told StateCollege.com. He said HFL plans to move its offices, though a new office location hasn’t been announced yet.
 
As for the apartments themselves, Sahakian has said the demand for downtown student apartments ‘is always going to be greater than (for) the ones outside of town.’

Penn State students ‘like to walk to campus, rather than … take a bus,’ he has said.

Plans for the new building call for about 2,900 square feet of retail space on its first floor. The 75 apartments included above would be mostly — if not entirely — four-bedroom units.

In addition, it’s expected to share covered parking facilities with the adjacent Bryce Jordan Tower, another student-apartment building developed by HFL. A traffic consultant engaged by HFL has determined that the new building should generate less vehicular traffic than the existing office buildings do.

Other features of the plans include a green roof. No balconies are included.

HFL representatives, appearing Thursday before the Planning Commission, said they’d like to break ground on the project as soon as possible. They’re looking to have it complete by 2013, they said.

Earlier coverage

• HFL Building Would Offer 75 Apartments, Sahakian Says; Downtown Demand ‘Always … Greater’ (July 27, 2011)