UPDATED @ 3:21 p.m. Friday:
Susquehanna Real Estate President Jack Kay has sought a one-year deadline extension for a $1.8 million payment to State College borough. The payment, currently due by Dec. 31, would complete the developer’s acquisition of the borough land needed for the Fraser Centre project.
Kay made the extension request Friday during a presentation before the Borough Council. He said the extra leeway would give project planners more time to finalize specific elements of the project. It was to have broken ground in 2008, but project leaders have said the downtrodden economy and financing complications have delayed the process.
Seventy percent of square footage in the planned center already has occupants lined up, Kay said. In order to secure construction financing, though, the project needs to hit the 80 percent threshold, he said.
And that, Kay went on, can probably happen in a matter of several months.
Borough Council members did not immediately decide whether to grant a deadline extension for the land-acquisition payment. They said they will discuss the matter at an upcoming executive session. Executive sessions are closed to the public.
A council vote on the deadline extension could be held Dec. 6. Exact terms of the proposed extension were not disclosed, but Kay said Susquehanna will provide the borough with interest if the payment is delayed.
Fraser Centre is expected to take shape on the 100 block of South Fraser Street, where the former municipal building and the Medical Arts Building once stood.
Return to StateCollege.com for a more thorough report from the Friday presentation.
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Earlier report, posted @ 4:41 p.m. Thursday:
State College Borough Council will receive Friday an update on the planned Fraser Centre project, borough and downtown leaders confirmed.
They expect the presentation to be a routine matter; the update was scheduled a number of weeks ago, they said. Susquehanna Real Estate President Jack Kay, whose company is leading the redevelopment plan, is slated to address the council for a half-hour starting at 12 p.m. at the borough building, 243 S. Allen St.
Kay, reached earlier this week, declined to tell a reporter what his presentation might entail. He said he wants the council to receive his update first-hand and not through the news media.
Borough Council President Ron Filippelli said Wednesday that he was not aware of any major recent changes in the Fraser Centre plans, which call for a multi-use complex on the 100 block of South Fraser Street.
But Filippelli did note that the developers owe the borough a $1.8 million payment by Dec. 31. That payment, dictated under an agreement signed in 2008, would finalize the development group’s purchase of the land needed to build Fraser Centre. The acreage has been owned by the borough.
If Kay ‘won’t be able to make the payment by the end of the year,’ Filippelli said, the council will have to decide whether to give him an extension.
‘I will support that’ extension if it’s necessary, Filippelli said. ‘I think the project is extremely important to the downtown. I think it has always been. It’s important to the borough as a whole.’
Work on Fraser Centre, to include condominiums, a cinema and retail space, was to have started in 2008. But complications with financing and the economy have helped delay a groundbreaking, organizers have said.
The borough government and other governmental entities have long backed the Fraser Centre plans, arguing that the complex would help boost the tax base, add jobs and diversify the downtown economy.
About $4 million in state funds have been committed to help the $50 million project. Another $2.5 million in local support has been committed through tax-increment financing.
Skeptics have taken issue with those public-funding allocations, arguing that the project should be able to stand on its own — without government support. Meanwhile, some proponents have argued that downtown redevelopment is especially expensive and that suburban sprawl — supported by government-financed roads — has siphoned business away from the borough.
‘We really, honestly thought (a groundbreaking) would be in November’ for Fraser Centre, said Dolores Taricani, who chairs the Downtown State College Improvement District board. ‘But right now, I can’t say it’s going to be November.’
The DID has been a key in the Fraser Centre planning process. Taricani said Kay, of Susquehanna Real Estate, has shown ‘amazing tenacity’ in his commitment to the project.
She said at least two cinema operators have expressed interest in Fraser Centre. But an executive with Cinema Center, the company expected to operate the Fraser Centre movie theaters, declined to comment for publication this week.
StateCollege.com had asked whether the company still plans to be part of the State College project.
‘We always thought that the cinema, which was (sought) as a destination downtown by the borough (government), would be the most difficult part of this to bring together,’ Taricani said.
She believes that element of the project has come together pretty well, though, she said. She said she does not expect ‘any big surprises’ in Kay’s Borough Council presentation Friday.
‘I would be shocked if he comes in with some kind of enormous statement about the project,’ Taricani said.
She believes Kay is close to adding a boutique hotel to the Fraser Centre plans, she said. And ‘I think when that is in place, there will be a lot of relief,’ Taricani said.
Kay’s Friday presentation will be part of a Borough Council work session. The gathering will be open to the public.
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