What development is happening out near the airport?

Soon, a 40-bed nursing home, operated by Wynwood House Personal Care Community, will open on Bernel Road in Patton Township. It's one of several development projects popping up in the area.

There's a 60-acre area of land at the corner of Bernel and Fox Hill roads, which is zoned in the township's Planned Airport District (due to its proximity to the University Park Airport) and part of the Master Plan for the Nittany Valley Sports Centre.

Planning for the Nittany Valley Sports Centre, which is slated to include an indoor sports facility, has been under discussion for the past four years, said Doug Erickson, Patton Township manager.

Erickson said there's been some site work for the sports center, but construction hasn't started on the building.

Also planned for that area is 12 duplexes, he said.

Those three development projects will only take up about half of the site, Erickson said, so there's still potential for some retail spaces, a small hotel/motel or some light industrial uses.

"There's a variety of land uses (that) could go in there, nonresidential type of land uses. We'll just have to see what comes about," he said.

Once a few projects get started, they seem to generate other interest, he added.

The development there also means that developers are responsible for fixing the "odd" intersection of Bernel and Fox Hill roads, Erickson said. It'll get changed back into a "standard T," meaning that traffic on Bernel Road will have to stop, while through traffic on Fox Hill Road will be able to proceed through the intersection without stopping.

The township is partnering on the project (pledging $100,000), and a grant application has been submitted to the state Department of Transportation to cover half the cost of what Erickson estimates to be a $1.2 million project.

As for development in the rest of the township, Erickson said he doesn't think it'll ever get back to what it was in the mid-2000s when there was a new big box store every year and 100 new single-family homes being built each year.

"I think we're gonna see steady growth if the economy stays like it is," he said.

This story was originally published June 15, 2018 at 3:51 PM with the headline "What development is happening out near the airport?."