State College Authority Hopes For Redevelopment At Verizon Site

The State College Redevelopment Authority has informally agreed not to advocate an immediate sale of the former Verizon building in the downtown.

Instead, authority members said Thursday, they would like to see the borough explore potential partnerships and collaborations that would redevelop the Allen Street property. Ideally, they said, they would hope to see a mixed-use development there, perhaps incorporating elements such as non-student housing, offices, non-profit groups and retail stores.

‘The (real-estate) market is horrible. And we think we can come up with a result that’s much better than’ an outright sale, member Stephen Yohannan said at the authority’s Thursday meeting.

Said his colleague Karen Burgos: ‘It’s a crown jewel. We don’t want it to go just to a developer. … This is a real opportunity for us.’

Borough Council voted in 2007 to acquire the property from Verizon for $750,000. At that point, council members anticipated that the 7,800-square-foot building would be an eventual home for the planned Discovery Space children’s museum.

But museum organizers announced in June that they now expect to open the museum on West Foster Avenue, about a block away from the former Verizon building. The Foster Avenue venue will be a far-less-expensive launching point, though they had hoped — and planned — to use the Allen Street space, Discovery Space leaders said.

Fundraising has seen ‘some success, yes, but nearly as much as we would have liked for the project that we started out doing,’ Discovery Space Chairwoman Marty Starling said in June.

Faced with that news, the Borough Council has charged the Redevelopment Authority, an appointed body, with examining and recommending new options for the former Verizon building. For the time being, the Centre County Democratic organization and a couple Democratic campaigns are renting space there through November.

Borough Planning Director Carl Hess estimated that initiating, crafting and finalizing a collaborative redevelopment plan could take three years. In the meantime, Redevelopment Authority members said, the Allen Street property could be rented for another use. They floated ideas including a business incubator, a daycare center, a farmers’ market and a consignment shop.

Already, a Penn State student group has made a pitch for the business-incubator idea.

For the longer-term redevelopment concepts, the Redevelopment Authority can make suggestions to the Borough Council, but cannot formalize any plans for the property. That power — including the power to sell the property — rests with council members.

Authority members are expected to continue discussions about the property at their September meeting. Specifically, they’ll be reviewing overall development-capacity estimates for the site, Hess said.

Earlier coverage: Penn State Student Group Seeks Former Verizon Building For IncubatorMuseum Plans Move To Foster Avenue