STATE COLLEGE — There is movement that may lead to new life for the dormant former Autoport motel and restaurant property on South Atherton Street.
Plans are in motion for a subdivision and lot consolidation involving a 2.75-acre portion of the Autoport property and 2.88 acres owned by the adjacent New Covenant Baptist Church.
The subdivision of a portion of the church land requires planning commission review and borough council approval to move forward.
No plans have been announced for the land.
“Obviously, the property owners are going to want to do something with this property at some point,” Pat Ward, of Uni-Tec Consulting Engineers, told the planning commission this month.
Ward added, “At the time of development there will be a lot of detail to go into. Until a plan is proposed, it’s a simple subdivision.”
The Autoport, at 1405 S. Atherton St., was Pennsylvania’s oldest motel. It closed in December 2015 after financial struggles, including facing foreclosure. A deal in which the Autoport was sold for $2.1 million to South Atherton Real Estate 1 closed in the spring. The address listed for South Atherton Real Estate 1 is 356 Laurens Road in Montoursville, the location of Gregory Welteroth Holding.
Welteroth could not be reached for comment.
New Covenant pastor Gregory Allen told the Gazette a sales agreement is in place, but said he was not at liberty to discuss the matter further.
The potential consolidation with the church land involves parcels that are zoned differently.
The Autoport land is zoned CP2, which allows medium-density mixed use for such things as a motel, shopping, townhomes or a retail-apartment mix. The land owned by the church is zoned R2, which permits one- to two-family dwellings, churches and schools. The portion of the church land involved in the potential subdivision and consolidation is currently undeveloped. The church land, at 1524 University Drive, runs behind the Autoport property.
A zone change has not been proposed. Without a zone change, future development would be limited to uses permitted in those existing zones. Ward said in July that the transfer of property from the church to South Atherton Real Estate 1 was not conditioned on a zone change.
The current proposal involves only the northern end of the Autoport property — the portion on which the main building sits. The plan submitted to the planning commission this summer also included the southern portion of the Autoport land, but that lot has been removed from the proposal.
The proposal is expected to come back before the commission Wednesday, Nov. 2. The commission makes a recommendation to the borough council based on whether the proposal meets the appropriate ordinance. Planning officials indicated that the proposed subdivision appeared to meet ordinance requirements.
Facing potential foreclosure, the Autoport appeared in October 2014 on the reality television show “Hotel Impossible,” a show that attempts to assist struggling hotels. But with the business facing a sheriff’s sale, its former owners, Greg and Lynda Mussi, filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code in April 2015.
