The former Bon-Ton store at the Nittany Mall may have a new resident soon. A memorandum of lease option agreement with Nittany Gaming LLC was submitted to the Centre County Recorder of Deeds office on April 20.
The lease option agreement was signed Feb. 16 between optionors Nittany Centre Realty LLC and Nittany Nassim LLC and optionee Nittany Gaming LLC for the 62,000-square-foot location at the mall. The memorandum states that Nittany Gaming LLC is granted ‘the exclusive right and option to lease and to buy the premises … at a rental rate and purchase price and under the terms and conditions described in the lease option agreement.’ Those terms were not included with the memorandum, which also does not specify what type of business Nittany Gaming LLC would operate there.
Investor and Penn State Board of Trustees member Ira Lubert signed as the authorized member of Nittany Gaming LLC, which according to state records was created in January. Lubert, a partner in real estate and private equity firms, had been the primary owner of the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King Of Prussia until it was bought out in January. The transfer of the casino’s operating license to Boyd Gaming Corporation of Las Vegas was approved April 4. Boyd bought the Valley Forge Casino Resort for a total cash consideration of $280.5 million.
When the state decided to expand gaming this year, there were 10 Category 4 ‘mini casino’ licenses available in the state. Category 4 casinos are allowed between 300 and 750 slot machines and 30 table games. As of April, only five bids were placed on the licenses and the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is unsure if it is going to open up the remaining five for bidding again this year. None of the five bids that were accepted were in Centre County.
College Township was one of the few municipalities in the area to not opt out of casino considerations. Township manager Adam Brumbaugh said that is because the township already had strict restrictions for adult business that casinos would fall under. Brumbaugh said the former Bon-Ton location is one of the few locations in the township that would be suitable for a casino because of these restrictions. The former Sears location does not meet the restrictions because it is closer to a residential property and a church, said Brumbaugh.
In its decision in December not to opt out from consideration, College Township Council also cited the potential for redevelopment of a portion of the struggling Nittany Mall.
Bon-Ton announced it would be closing its Nittany Mall location in January and officially closed its doors April 29.
The Gazette attempted to contact the Nittany Mall and Lubert about the memorandum of lease option agreement, but neither has responded.
StateCollege.com editor Geoff Rushton contributed to this story.
