The Village at Penn State is looking to expand its facilities in eastern Patton Township.
On Sept. 12, the Liberty Lutheran Development Corporation, the owner of Village at Penn State, asked the Centre County Commissioners to issue $12 million worth of revenue bonds for the project. The Centre County General Authority will undertake the financing of the project.
John Barnum, chief financial officer at Liberty Lutheran, said the Village is “doing extremely well from where it came from the bankruptcy” five years ago.
The next step has been long in the planning, Barnum said.
Plans consist of three main pieces. The first, which is already under way through internal funding, is a community and general assembly room for residents. Liberty Lutheran also has plans for six new villas and two cottages at the site at 330 Lions Hill Road, State College.
The final piece is Palmer Park, named for Arnold Palmer, and Barnum said the Palmer Development Company is working to develop part of the parcel to feature a small golfing and greenery area for other activities, such as bocce ball.
Right now, the costs for the project are approaching about $11 million, Barnum said. The county commissioners voted immediately to approve the issue of bonds. The financing does not impact the county and there will not be any obligation to tax revenues.
Liberty Lutheran currently manages five facilities totaling 910 beds across a range of care levels.
Barnum said The Village at Penn State has recently been seeing more people from out of the area applying to live at the community.
In other news from the county commissioners, Bob Jacobs, director of Centre County Planning, said Centre Crest is looking to add about 70 more parking spots to its current Bellefonte location. He said all permits have been completed and the borough has signed off on the plan.
Jacobs gave his opinion that the 70 parking spots and subsequent stormwater work would help to make the building attractive for when Centre Crest makes the move in coming years to its new facility in College Township.
The commissioners speculated briefly on the future of the Bellefonte Centre Crest building, but said the move would not happen until at least 2021, and a new board of commissioners would be seated in 2020. Commissioner Steve Dershem said as the county grows in population the government has been having internal discussions about possibly moving around county personnel.
Commissioner Michael Pipe said he has been hearing a lot of ideas for the building, but said it would be inappropriate to do anything other than make some initial exploration of possible uses for the building and collect ideas.
