HFL Building Would Offer 75 Apartments, Sahakian Says; Downtown Demand ‘Always … Greater’

State College-based HFL Corporation plans to pursue the larger of two apartment-building concepts it has imagined for the 400 block of East Beaver Avenue, company Chairman Henry Sahakian told StateCollege.com.

‘We have designed a building that complies with all the regulations and zoning,’ he said.

Initially, HFL had drafted a 65-apartment concept and a 75-apartment concept, both for the same property at the northwest corner of Hetzel Street and East Beaver Avenue. Sahakian said the company was not ‘sure whether one (would) be acceptable or not.’

Now that company understands the 75-apartment concept will fit under borough rules, he said, that’s the one HFL will pursue. He estimated it would include six floors of apartments, with retail space on the ground level.

State College borough leaders have said they expect to receive, by August or September, a detailed project plan for official review and consideration.

Sahakian said HFL has not yet identified a proposed name for the apartment building, which would sit immediately east of Bryce Jordan Tower, also developed by HFL. Most of the new building’s apartments would be four-bedroom units; it also would include some three-bedroom apartments, Sahakian said.

He said the demand for downtown student apartments ‘is always going to be greater than (for) the ones for outside of town.’

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

He said the new building would not include any balconies. It would sit on land now occupied by two office-oriented buildings, including HFL’s own headquarters.

But right now, those existing structures are mostly vacant, Sahakian said. One of the longtime primary tenants, the Sahakian-founded Uni-Marts LLC, is gone now, having filed for bankruptcy several years ago.

Both of the existing buildings would be demolished, and HFL would need to find a new corporate home, Sahakian said. He said the company has not finalized where it may locate its new offices.

As for a timeframe, Sahakian said HFL would like to begin construction on the project by sometime next year. That will hinge on the issuance of project approvals from local authorities.

Earlier coverage

• HFL Proposes Student Apartment Building at Hetzel and Beaver (July 22, 2011)