A land development plan for a 1-million-square-foot warehouse that would bring nearly 700 jobs to Benner Commerce Park has been withdrawn.
Centre County’s Planning and Community Development Office received formal notice that the developer was withdrawing the plans on Wednesday morning, county subdivision and land development planner Christopher Schnure said.
“A reason for the withdrawal was not mentioned,” Schnure wrote in an email.
A representative for project developer SunCap Property Group declined to comment about the reason for the withdrawal or whether a revised plan might be submitted in the future.
The company behind the warehouse plan has not been publicly identified. The plan for the 103-acre site on Penntech Drive in Benner Township labeled the facility as a “fulfillment center warehouse,” and Centre County Commissioner Michael Pipe said it would be a “warehouse for e-commerce.”
While speculation has largely landed on Amazon as the likely employer since the project was introduced to the Centre County Board of Commissioners on April 19, SunCap representatives told commissioners they were bound by a non-disclosure agreement and could not identify the end user.
Pipe and Schnure said on Tuesday it was the first time in memory a plan came before the county and the developer would not identify the end user.
“At the level that this is, I think that we deserve some answers as a community,” Commissioner Steve Dershem said on Tuesday. “I don’t know what the exact answer to that is. I am in support of business and I am supportive of private property land use. My question is, something of this nature involves many elements beyond the scope and boundary of their property.”
Plans for the warehouse showed 900 parking spaces on the west side of the building and 70 to 80 tractor-trailer bays on the east and south sides.
Primary access to the building was to be from Venture Drive. A traffic impact study that was under review identified “very minimal improvements” needed to manage traffic flow because of the proximity to the Interstate 99 interchange, Schnure said last week. A traffic signal would be installed at Penntech Drive and Benner Pike, which the commerce park had long planned.
Nittany Valley Environmental Coalition and the Sierra Group Moshannon Club raised concerns about the environmental impact of the site’s large amount of impervious surface on the wild trout waters of nearby Logan Branch and the the township’s karst aquifers, springs and water supplies.
The organizations did not oppose the development, but Benner Township resident David Roberts, speaking on behalf of both groups at Tuesday’s commissioners meeting, said they wanted to see the developer utilize “green infrastructure” for stormwater management, as well as a retention system to ensure vehicle fluids did not seep into the groundwater.
“What we’re asking for is, instead of asking for the old cookie-cutter type of stormwater management, is to put in green infrastructures that would be comprised of bioswales, rain garden-type things, and utilization of perimeters with bioretention that can help to absorb the stormwater and enhance the infiltration in a natural way,” Roberts said.
Benner Commerce Park is currently home to SilcoTek, Cleveland Brothers, Homeland Manufacturing and the Pennsylvania State Police Rockview barracks.
