After more than two years of study and planning, Centre County government is getting ready to start work on a major overhaul of the former Centre Crest building in Bellefonte.
The Board of Commissioners on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve formal contracts with the four prime contractors on the project, which will convert the 86-year-old former nursing home building into primarily county government offices and facilities. Commissioners previously voted in January to award $26.4 million in bids to the four contractors:
- General trades – G.M. McCrossin Inc., $13,097,410
- HVAC – Ainsworth-Enginuity, $6,449,000
- Plumbing – Ainsworth-Enginuity, $2,437,000
- Electrical – Hallstrom-Clark Electric, $4,451,500
The next step, County Administrator John Franek said, will be for project construction manager Massaro Construction Management Services to issue a notice to proceed.
“We would then start with putting security fencing around the property and getting the job ready for first steps, which would be abatement and [interior] demolition,” Franek said.
The project is expected to be completed by next summer, with occupancy by July 1, 2025.
The county has been working on plans for the former nursing home facility since it was vacated in September 2021, when Centre Crest residents moved to the new Centre Care in College Township. The building has always been owned by the county, but the nursing home operations transitioned to a non-profit board in 2013.
A feasibility study performed in 2021 determined that the 118,00-square-foot building at 502 E. Howard St. was structurally sound and that investments could provide a central home for human services departments, freeing up crowded space in the Willowbank Building and moving some departments out of scattered leased offices.
Board of Commissioners Chair Mark Higgins said on Tuesday the renovated facility may be renamed the Centre County Human Services Building.
“This is going to provide a centralized space for all of our human services departments to be together in one building that has been purpose built… for being able to serve those who are often some of our most vulnerable populations who are coming into the county seeking services,” Board Vice Chair Amber Concepcion said. “We will have spaces that are built for privacy and to be able to best meet their needs when they are coming in to visit the professionals in our building.”
The renovated building will also have space for the county elections office, which Concepcion said “will really improve the flow of the work in the elections office, especially on those very busy election days when there’s all the judges of elections coming in and out of the building dropping off things,” as well as proving more storage space.
Among other tenants of the renovated building will be the Bellefonte Senior Center, which will have a larger space than its current space at 110 N. Spring St.
“The handicap accessibility will also be better because the land is relatively flat there and [there is] lots of easy parking right by the door,” Higgins said.
Two or three large spaces will be available for lease, Franek said, providing possible opportunities for non-government human service agencies to co-locate with similarly oriented government offices.
Commissioner Steve Dershem noted that the commercial kitchen will be retained, and Franek said the county is “currently negotiating a potential restructuring of an existing contract with a meal provider.”
No additions are planned for the property, and work will include gutting and renovating the interior, replacing mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems and other improvements. Last summer, commissioners authorized a related $1.4 million contract for roof replacement at the facility.
Project funding includes about $30 million from general obligation bonds issued in June 2022, along with about $3 million in county funds were also set aside for the renovation and smaller projects at the Willowbank building and courthouse
MG Architects, which conducted the adaptive reuse study, was hired in 2022 to design plans for the building for $882,300.
The renovations will be among the largest Centre County government construction projects in decades, Higgins said, second only to the county correctional facility that opened in 2005.
“It’s going to be a neat building,” Dershem said. “Hopefully everything goes smoothly moving forward.”
