State College Reaches Tentative Deal to Buy Addison Court

State College Borough has reached a tentative agreement to acquire a downtown apartment building and ensure it is maintained as low-income housing for seniors and people with disabilities.

Borough Council on Monday will consider approving a deal to purchase Arnold Addison Court, 120 E. Beaver Ave., from property owner PrimeCore for $15.75 million, according to the meeting agenda published late Friday afternoon.

Under the terms of the proposed agreement, the borough would lease the property back to PrimeCore “for purposes of obtaining [Low-Income Housing Tax Credits] that will provide for an additional 40 years for Addison Court to provide senior housing,” according to the agenda.

The borough would make an initial payment of $250,000, followed by $5 million at the time the LIHTC application is filed and the remaining $10.5 million at closing in 2027.

“Approval of this agreement will require that the LIHTC application process and filing move forward with this project,” according to the agenda.

Funding sources for the acquisition and what will happen if the LIHTC application is not successful were not immediately clear. The borough has declined to discuss specifics since Council President Evan Myers revealed on Aug. 3 that a deal was in the works, citing ongoing negotiations.

Borough ownership, though, would bring to an end months of angst for Addison Court’s dozens of residents after State College-based developer PrimeCore initially proposed razing the building and replacing it with a new student apartment complex. PrimeCore CEO Ara Kervandjian then said he would instead pursue tax credits to preserve the property as low-income housing — with the caveat the company would return to its original plan if that effort was unsuccessful.

Addison Court opened in 1994 and was constructed using Low Income Housing Tax Credits, which required a 30-year affordability period that ended in December 2024. (The borough also provided a $440,000 loan from Community Development Block Grant funds in 1993 for property acquisition, which the former owner paid back in full in 2012.)

In December 2025, PrimeCore reached an agreement to purchase the property from Beaver Court Associates LP and submitted a land development plan for a new apartment building on the site mirroring the neighboring Pugh Centre, with ground-floor commercial, six floors containing 40 apartments, including four inclusionary housing units, a rooftop terrace and underground parking.

Tenants of Addison Court, where 50 of the 89 mostly one-bedroom apartments are leased, received a letter in December from property manager Calibre Residential informing them that all current leases would have an end date of Nov. 30, 2026.

Staff from the borough and the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, which administers the federal LIHTC program in the commonwealth, reviewed legal documents related to the property and said they believe a deed covenant prohibits the eviction of tenants who resided there as of Dec. 31, 2024 without cause before Dec. 31, 2027 because of a required three-year wind-down period after the affordability requirements expired.

Kervandjian vowed his company would assist Addison Court residents with finding new homes. In May, however, following months of criticism from community members and concerns from the building’s tenants, Kervandjian said his “plan A” was to pursue Low-Income Housing Tax Credits that would subsidize rehabilitation of the existing building and require that it remain income-limited and rent-restricted for another 40 years.

The competitive LIHTC program involves a process that is lengthy, taking up to two years, and expensive, with significant pre-application preparation. Kervandjian said that he would make a good-faith effort to acquire the tax credits but that if he was not successful, he would revert to the plan for new construction. He asked for a zoning change related to height restrictions in the event that he returned to the student apartment plan, adding that it was unlikely he or any other developer would maintain the property as low-income housing without LIHTC support.

He also said that if it is maintained, he anticipated the building would require substantial renovations, some of which would be mandated by the tax credit program.

Kervandjian has been the most prolific developer of low-income housing in Centre County over the past 15 years, and his track record with the LIHTC program is sterling. He has applied for LIHTC funding for seven projects since 2012 and has been successful each time in his first application — a feat borough planning director Ed LeClear in May called “rare.”

“We’re confident about our abilities,” Kervendjian said in May. “We’ve got a good relationship with the [Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency] and we know how to submit proposals.”

Since Myers’ revelation that State College was pursuing a purchase of the building, the borough has asked three neighboring townships to make relatively small financial contributions toward the effort to preserve Addison Court as low-income senior housing.

Patton Township’s Board of Supervisors on Aug. 19 committed $5,000, and College and Ferguson townships are expected to consider the request at upcoming meetings.

When asked about the specific purpose for the contributions, a borough spokesperson told StateCollege.com in an email that State College is working with municipal partners “to support Addison Court as it goes through the application process for the low-income housing tax credit program.”

Patton Township Manager Amy Farkas said the townships were asked to make small donations that are “less about contributing towards the purchase and more about contributing towards the cause of keeping affordable housing for folks.”

State College Borough Council’s meeting on Monday, Aug. 31, starts at 7 p.m. in council chambers of the Municipal Building, 243 S. Allen St. The meeting also will air live on C-NET channel 7 and cnet1.org, and can be viewed via Zoom.