BELLEFONTE — The Bellefonte Waterfront Project has stalled once again — at least for the winter months.
According to Bellefonte Borough manager Ralph Stewart, developer Tom Songer II has informed the borough that ground will not be broken this winter.
“The owner of the property, Mr. Tom Songer, has indicated that due to the current inflation issues, he is going to hold off on starting construction. At this point, until the spring of 2023,” Stewart said. “Originally, he was going to start the foundation work this fall.”
However, fall came and went without ground being broken on the project.
“Because of the cost of materials, he has decided to hold off all construction until spring. That’s what he has indicated,” Stewart said.
The project has been in the works since 2018. The original plan was to begin construction in the summer of 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down construction sites and caused supply chain issues.
The waterfront area has been vacant since a 2006 fire destroyed the iconic Bush House.
Songer and project managing partner Mark Morath said in a May 2022 vision statement that they believe the project “will be the catalyst to enhance Bellefonte’s vibrant and active community, where people will want to visit and live, while supporting other businesses in the downtown area of Bellefonte and surrounding area.”
According to Stewart, the delay isn’t a big setback.
“In his updates, he wasn’t going to do the bulk of the construction over the winter months anyway. Winter complicates many things — concrete (and) the materials being placed,” Stewart said.
The waterfront project, as a whole, consists of the construction of a hotel and parking garage, along with a six-story condominium building with commercial space on the first floor that will be started a year after the hotel and parking garage are off and running.
Once bids are in for the construction of the site work, hotel and parking garage, developers will determine when the project officially moves forward, Songer told CCG earlier this year.
“He wants to do the hotel and the parking garage in very much the same timeframe. He would start the hotel first and only a few months later while the cranes are there … he would start the garage and the garage would go up quicker so he can afford to start it later,” Stewart said.
Stewart said that will involve “a lot of concrete work.”
“He was going to try and get an early start on foundation work, but the costs are way up because of inflation,” Stewart noted.
According to the vision statement, the hotel will be located on the corner of High and Dunlop streets and will include a restaurant, a rooftop lounge, a banquet room, meeting facilities and food and beverage service outlets.
The ballroom will accommodate 250 to 300 guests for receptions, weddings or meetings and can be divided into smaller meeting rooms.
The restaurant will provide guests with a farm-to-table dining experience using locally sourced agricultural products along with locally crafted beers, wines, spirits and ciders.
According to the vision statement, one goal of the project is to support local businesses. In April of this year, borough council changed the height limit for the project from 65 feet to 75 feet to allow for a rooftop experience at the hotel.
At that time, Songer also announced developers were adding five stories of residential condominiums on the Spring Creek side of the parking garage, above first floor commercial space. The parking garage is planned to stand between the hotel and the other condominium building.
Songer said the added condominiums on the creek side of the parking garage would provide a “nice visual, aesthetically pleasing experience” as viewed from Water Street. Developers have already been receiving interest about the one-, two- and three-bedroom condos.
Stewart said that he’s hopeful the project will get off the ground in 2023.
“He’s hoping that by spring of 2023 that the inflationary increases will have calmed down,” Stewart said.
The project is expected to be completed by 2024.
“They talked about a year-long project, so likely it would be open and ready for business in the spring of 2024,” Stewart said. “Maybe a couple of months earlier. But it will really be around that time frame — a year later once he starts.”
This story appears in the Dec. 8-14 edition of The Centre County Gazette.
