Bank Planned for Next Phase of Patton Crossing Development

Plans are moving forward for a bank that would be the next building constructed for the expansive Patton Crossing development off of North Atherton Street.

Centre 1st Bank’s proposed two-story, 14,800-square-foot location would be the second of 20 planned buildings in the overall development. Discount grocery store chain Aldi’s first Centre County location was also the first Patton Crossing business when it opened last year.

Patton Township Planning Commission on Monday night unanimously recommended approval of the land development plan for the bank.

Centre 1st Bank, a division of Old Dominion National Bank “created by and for Central Pennsylvanians,” opened its first location at 1276 N. Atherton St. in 2019.

The bank would be located along North Atherton Street at the front of the 30-acre Patton Crossing property, which is being developed by 1752 Associates, a partnership of three local real estate developers. Plans for the bank include three drive-through lanes, one with an ATM, and 54 parking spaces, Tony Fruchtl, of project engineer PennTerra, said.

A traffic impact study completed as part of the overall Patton Crossing development indicated a number of needed traffic improvements. Some of those have already been completed, but phase two development will incorporate the remainder, with a right-turn lane from Atherton Street to Woodycrest Street, lengthening of the left turn lane on Atherton Street into Patton Crossing and the addition of another exit lane on Wolf’s Lane, the road that connects the site to Atherton Street at the Woodycrest intersection.

“Those [traffic] improvements are based on the full buildout of this site,” Fruchtl said. “This is it. That’s the anticipation. There shouldn’t be any more improvements on Atherton or anything for this project.”

In addition to the bank, phase two plans for three other, single-story buildings which have not yet been scheduled for construction. The Patton Crossing Master Plan, approved in 2019, projects those buildings will be for restaurants or retail.

Future buildings will require approval of individual land development plans.

The exterior of the bank building will feature large use of glass, along with brick or stone and metal.

“They liked the look of this building. They thought the presence on the site would be a good first building for this phase so they wanted to move it forward,” Fruchtl said.

Access to the bank and other phase two buildings will be from the signalized full-movement intersection at Wolf’s Lane and Atherton Street, as well as another road to be constructed to the east for right-in, right-out turns.

Similar to the Aldi development, the property will have a retaining wall, stairs, landscaping and sidewalks connecting to the access roads and Atherton Street

A bike path that starts near Park Forest Avenue will be further extended to provide access to Atherton Street.

1752 North Atherton Street Associates first requested in 2017 rezoning of the former Penn State Mobile Home Park for mixed-use. A much-debated new mixed-use zoning ordinance to be applied to the site was approved in 2018. 

In September, supervisors approved a master plan for the project after discussion and review throughout 2019. The overall project includes 20 buildings to be constructed over up to 12 phases, with plans for a hotel, grocery store, restaurants, office space, shops, apartments and a large plaza and public gathering area.

Though the plan projects 25 years for all phases to be complete, developer Bob Poole said in 2019 that is an estimate and it could be built out sooner.

“We never know exactly how long it’s going to take,” Poole said at the time. “We don’t create the demand for the project; we satisfy the people who want to be there. Our hope is it goes much quicker… It’s not an exact science because we don’t know who’s going to come in next. We have a few people already that definitely want to be here.”

“We don’t create the demand. We satisfy it. People will call us, we’ll call them and try to bring them,” he later added. “We also care about the mix. We could fill that up faster, but we want a mix of restaurants, a mix of local people… you’re going to want that at the end also. You can always make something fill up faster just by putting anything in there, but that’s not what we’re trying to do.”