BELLEFONTE — Renovating and repurposing the former Centre Crest building for county use is expected to cost $33 million. County commissioners plan to approve the budget for the project next week.
During an April 12 board meeting, Deputy County Administrator John Franek Jr. presented the proposed preliminary budget for the project, which includes $29.2 million to renovate and repurpose Centre Crest and $2.8 million for updates to the Willowbank Building and continued improvements to the Centre County Courthouse.
The county had previously hired an architectural firm to determine the feasibility of the renovating of Centre Crest. The determination was that the building was structurally sound and worth the renovation investment to repurpose the building to include county offices with the purpose of creating a centralized human services location.
Currently, some of the county’s human service offices are located in the Willowbank Building, while others are in leased space at other locations.
To finance the project, the county plans to use $3 million in county funds and $30 million in bond issuance, said Franek.
Commissioner Mark Higgins said the project will not lead to a property tax increase for county residents, and it is a good time to “capture really low interest rates” to finance the project.
If approved, design work on the project would begin later this month and the project would go out to bid in January 2023. The hope is to have the construction completed in the second quarter of 2024 and have county workers complete moveins by the third quarter of 2024.
Pipe said the project would preserve the legacy of Centre Crest.
“This is a building that has been with us, second only in age, to the courthouse here in Centre County and the amount of people who have worked there and resided there and the amount of family members who have visited there is certainly in the thousands,” said Pipe. “I think we do have an obligation to honor those people, invest in this building and breathe new life into it and reuse it.”
He added that the investment would be part of the continued growth of the community, bringing 100 county workers back into Bellefonte.
The county may plan to rent part of the space to nonprofit or for-profit companies, which could provide income to the county said Higgins.
Higgins then said the board has a “solemn obligation to keep this significant county building in good repair.”
Commissioner Steven Dershem said, “This is a lot of money. This is a huge investment in county government, but I really have to thank my fellow commissioners for listening to me and I know there were times that I probably drove you crazy, but we have paired this number down and I think we have the opportunity to save even more money.”
He added, “as much I have struggled with this being the right move, and maybe it is a little bigger than we need right now,
I think it will relieve a lot of growing pains in the future. I think there is also an opportunity for us to take this facility and partner with a lot of community resources we use daily and put them all under one roof.”
The board unanimously approved adding a resolution stating it is the board’s intent to issue general obligation bonds to finance the project to next week’s consent agenda. It also authorizes and directs the county’s financing team to move forward.
