Two years after they were first submitted, plans for a mixed-use building on West College Avenue in Ferguson Township have taken a step forward.
The Ferguson Township Planning Commission on Tuesday voted 5-1 to recommend approval of State College-based developer Highland Holding Group’s preliminary land development plan for the proposed seven-story commercial and residential building at 1004 W. College Ave.
The project will involve the demolition of the former WTAJ and Nittany Property Management buildings.
Located near the intersection of West College Avenue and South Butz Street, the 75-foot-tall, 222,548-square-foot building will have 10,810 square feet ground floor commercial space. The second through seventh floors will have 107 apartments, a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units for a total of 255 beds.
The first floor will have a lobby and outdoor seating areas. The second floor also includes a resident amenity deck with a club room, pool and two hot tubs.
Yet to be settled is whether those amenities will be credited for the township’s parkland, or recreation, fee in-lieu. The township requires a dedication of parkland or a fee in-lieu for land development approval.
“The [Municipal Planning Code] is really clear that whole purpose of recreation fees or providing recreation is to provide something for the new people that are being introduced into the community,” Charlie Suhr, Highland Holding Group’s attorney for the project, said. “So it’s not a general tax that goes on. It’s specific for that. Of course, given our site, we can’t build a park. There’s not enough room for that. But an amenity like a pool here is certainly very useful for that. We are asking for credit for the value of the land, because that would be a very awkward calculation here. It’s just for the facilities that are being presented.”
Two levels of subterranean parking will have 159 spaces, with 25 tentatively dedicated to the commercial space, as well as bicycle storage rooms.
The parking meets township requirements, but several planning commissioners questioned whether it would be enough. Highland Holding Group President Alex Sahakian said he is “confident” that it would be, because many tenants will be students who do not drive frequently and that spaces will only be allocated based on availability.
Entrance to the parking and deliveries will be via W. Calder Way, which at that location is a private road. It will be maintained and kept open for public use by the developer.
The building will be located a block down from the six-story, mixed-use Haus, which opened last fall. Highland Holding Group was not involved with that building, but Suhr said they will have comparable looks, with materials including limestone, brick and black and gray prefabricated facade systems.
With two residential complexes in close proximity, the developers expect a mix of pedestrian customers and those who arrive by vehicle at the ground-floor commercial space in the new building, Suhr said.
“Alex will be looking for [commercial] tenants that can use that balance, that can kind of fit in with the right number of people who park but yet is going to meet the needs of the people who are immediately right there, because we have two large apartments that are going to be right there. And they’re not driving anything. They’re just going to be walking.”
Planning commission members also raised concerns about the empty commercial space in Haus and in portions of recently constructed downtown State College mixed-use building.
Sahakian pointed to his track record in State College, noting that the ground-floor space in the buildings he has developed is occupied. That includes The Edge, which opened on East Beaver Avenue in 2018 and counts Roots Natural Kitchen and The Whale Tea as its commercial tenants. When Starbucks vacated the Centre Court building for the Pugh Centre last year, it was quickly replaced by a new Dunkin’. When a space opened up nearby in the Ambassador/Campus Tower plaza, he recruited the popular Carter’s Table restaurant.
“We don’t really have the luxury of institutional investors that don’t care about what’s happening on the first floor,” Sahakian said. “We’re very committed to trying to make sure that they are full. We’re building the space; it costs us money to do that. Furthermore, we’re in the community and we tend to know who’s looking to open up a restaurant or provide a service… I think this side of town is underserved, so we’re actually pretty confident that we will fill those spaces. Do we have guarantees of that? No… [but] I don’t have a space that’s empty on the street level in State College.”
The preliminary plan has been slow to advance in part because last year the developer went through a months-long zoning appeal process related to height incentives for age-restricted units and the total amount that should be paid for a fee in-lieu of onsite workforce housing.
The township’s zoning hearing board in August ultimately granted Highland Holding Group’s plan to require 15% of the units to have at least one tenant age 21 or older, qualifying it to extend the height of the building 20 feet above the standard 55-foot maximum. The township argued the intent of the age restriction incentive was for 15% of units to be dedicated to residents 55 and older, but the age was not explicitly stated in the zoning code.
Highland’s request to pay its fee-in-lieu into the township’s workforce housing fund based on rates in 2022, when the plan was submitted, was denied and it will be required to pay the rate set in the year the final plan is recorded. Suhr said that figure will be more than $1 million.
A draft workforce housing agreement was submitted to the township earlier this year, Suhr said.
With those issues settled, Suhr noted, the developer is not seeking any variances or modifications.
“This has been a rather long process,” Suhr said. “We’ve been working with staff over the last two years really to flesh out all of the issues.”
The preliminary land development plan will next go to the Board of Supervisors for approval. Highland Holding Group then will need to submit and receive approval for a final land development plan before construction can begin.
