Penn State’s Innovation Park could soon be expanding.
College Township Council on Thursday heard requests for minor extensions of the Regional Growth Boundary to construct a privately-owned rehabilitation hospital and a new building for the university’s Applied Research Lab at the business and research park on the northeastern fringe of the University Park campus.
PAM Health, a national healthcare provider based in Cumberland County, is looking to construct a two-story, 50,000-square-foot physical rehabilitation hospital on about 5 acres that sit adjacent to the existing Innovation Park boundary.
The company, which was founded and is led by Penn State alumnus Anthony Misitano, is currently working with the university on a ground lease for the property. The agreement is tentatively expected to be brought to the Board of Trustees for approval in February, according to Phil Schuck, executive vice president of PAM Health development partner Catalyst Healthcare Real Estate.
The in-patient rehabilitation facility would have 42 beds. The average patient stay is 12.5 days with a minimum of three hours of intensive rehabilitation per day, Schuck said.
“It’s typically a patient coming from a hospital — either complex surgery, stroke, could be a spine event, brain injury — and they’re not quite ready to go home but the hospital is ready to admit them out of the hospital,” Schuck said. “This is kind of a transitionary step to get better and then go back to their homes.”
The $40 million hospital would employ about 120 people with what Schuck described as “high-paying” jobs. Similar PAM Health facilities have annual payrolls of about $10 million, he said.
PAM Health is also in discussions with Mount Nittany Health on a potential joint venture for the hospital, according to Schuck.
Catalyst and PAM Health are aiming to begin construction in October, which Schuck said is an “aggressive schedule.” The project will require a subdivision of the 5 acres from a larger 16-acre parcel, a rezoning from University Planned District 14 to Research and Business Park District, which permits hospitals and medical centers.
It also will require an expansion of the Regional Growth Boundary (RGB) and Sewer Service Area (SSA) through a streamlined process that will not need approval from the Centre Region Council of Governments General Forum. Under the 2023 Centre Region RGB and SSA implementation agreement, each Centre Region municipality can expand the boundary by up to 12 acres and 50 equivalent dwelling units (EDUs) over five years.
Such smaller expansions require review by Centre Regional Planning Agency and the Centre Regional Planning Commission before municipal approval, but do not have to go through the longer process involving General Forum approval.
Penn State is already planning to go through the longer process for an expansion of Innovation Park to establish an Applied Research Lab campus over a period of about 50 years. But in the short term, the university is seeking a small expansion of the boundary for an immediate need.
ARL wants to build a laboratory building on 1 to 2 acres adjacent to the current Innovation Park boundary and located near another planned new building that is currently going through the land development process.
The building would need to be constructed before the larger growth boundary expansion is complete in order to “respond to a national grant” opportunity, according to a presentation by Neil Sullivan, university planner.
It would primarily be used for machinery and other equipment, with five employees who have offices in the existing 331 building, Sullivan said. It would have no full-time offices.
The building would be situated in an area designated in the ARL master plan for “maker space.”
“The request to expand the growth boundary sits on a cluster of buildings that has always been intended to be a workshop of ARL where they would do fabrication and machine testing,” Sullivan said. “So the reason we’re asking to put it there is so it falls in line with the initial intent of the master plan.”
It also would require a rezoning from University Planned District to Planned Research and Business Park District, which is located adjacent to the property.
Council informally agreed that PAM Health and the university should move forward with Development of Regional Impact applications to initiate the shortened growth boundary expansion process. Rezoning would be a separate, though concurrent, process.
“For those of us who were around when we established the UPD and we looked at Innovation Park, we all knew this was coming and we always thought this was an appropriate place to do what we’re doing,” Councilman Eric Bernier said.
The rehab hospital and ARL building are two of three projects in College Township that will be going through the streamlined RGB/SSA expansion process.
ClearWater Conservancy is also utilizing the process for its new community conservation center to be located along Spring Creek in Houserville. Council approved a land development plan for the project on Thursday.
If all three projects are approved for RGB/SSA expansion, College Township will have .34 acres and eight EDUs remaining available for boundary expansion without requiring General Forum approval through 2028.
Council members and township Manager Adam Brumbaugh, however, noted that will not preclude any future projects seeking expansion of the boundary. They would just be required to go through the longer process.
