What to expect from 10 of Centre County’s biggest development projects in 2026
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Centre County will see major projects in 2026 totaling hundreds of millions.
- Beaver Stadium and Mount Nittany projects show major structural progress in 2026.
- Nittany Mall casino and Benner commerce developments will drive jobs and tax revenue.
Driving through Centre County, it doesn’t take long to encounter construction fencing, excavation sites or other signs of development.
In 2025, a long-awaited regional park opened, downtown State College buildings were demolished to make way for new high-rises, and Penn State’s landscape changed due to numerous ongoing projects. The months ahead and the rest of 2026 look to be just as active with major development projects — totaling hundreds of millions of dollars — in various stages.
We’ve rounded up 10 of those projects below and what to expect from them in the coming year.
Happy Valley Casino
After a yearslong legal battle surrounding the license of Happy Valley Casino, it appears the actual construction of the casino at the Nittany Mall is going pretty smoothly.
In late December, a casino spokesperson told the CDT that the long-awaited Centre County casino in College Township was still expected to open in April 2026. There were also no significant changes from the plans and renderings released in November, the spokesperson added.
Renderings previously showed the modern appearance of the casino’s sports-themed, sit-down restaurant Aces Social and its quick-service food court Lucky Break Café. Plans also showed the 24/7 nonsmoking casino would start with 600 slot machines and 30 table games, a dozen of which will be blackjack.
Other tables games are poised to include craps, roulette, midi baccarat, Ultimate Texas Hold’em, face up pai gow poker, three card poker, Mississippi stud and Spanish 21.
Next year, the casino could seek to add up to 10 more table games. And developers are already planning to add to up 150 slot machines over the next 2-3 years.
Work on the at least $120 million project at the Nittany Mall began last year in mid-March, nearly five years after Penn State alum Ira Lubert first purchased the mini-casino license. The losing bidder challenged the legality of Lubert’s winning bid in court but ultimately lost in 2024, finally clearing the way for construction.
About 350 full-time equivalent positions are planned. Developers signed a framework agreement with Saratoga Casino Holdings that would give the New York-based company a majority ownership stake in the project.
In the first five years of operation, College Township and Centre County’s governments are expected to receive about $1.3 million annually in gaming tax.
Mount Nittany Health’s patient tower
Mount Nittany Health’s patient tower — a 10 floor, 300,000-square-foot building with 168 private patient rooms — is on track to open later this year.
The project started in the summer of 2023 and is anticipated to be completed by December. Tiffany Cabibbo, Mount Nittany Health’s chief nursing officer, said it will begin opening in late summer, starting with the first two floors. Those floors will have a new cafeteria, main entry, a modern parking deck, outdoor dining and walking areas, and an expanded gift shop, Cabibbo said.
“Additional floors will open over the remainder of 2026, culminating in 168 fully private patient rooms designed to enhance comfort, healing and privacy for patients, families and caregivers while supporting the evolving needs of our region,” Cabibbo said.
The $350 million addition to Mount Nittany Medical Center won’t increase bed count but will be used alongside existing private rooms and some double rooms that will be converted to private.
State College Area Connector
The state Department of Transportation’s latest preliminary cost estimate for its preferred route for the State College Area Connector is between $700 million and $900 million, making it the most expensive transportation project in Centre County history.
It’s also one of the four most expensive transportation projects of its kind in Pennsylvania history, PennDOT told the CDT. Using the low end of PennDOT’s estimate, $700 million could get you:
- More than 147 million packs of Grilled Stickies
- More than 116 million scoops of ice cream from the Creamery
- Centre County’s budget for nearly six years
- One renovation of Beaver Stadium
Construction of an approximately eight-mile highway would connect the Mount Nittany Expressway near Boalsburg to the newly constructed area of U.S. Route 322 in Potters Mills.
Exploratory drilling is expected to begin early this year, but the first milestone of 2026 will be the publication of a draft environmental impact study, a public comment period and a public hearing.
Once that process is complete, a PennDOT spokesperson said the agency will begin developing a plan for what land it would need to use or acquire. PennDOT previously said its preferred route would affect 19 farms, displace 16 residences, two businesses and a park.
Construction is slated to begin in 2030 and take about six years to complete.
Beaver Stadium renovation
Work on Penn State’s largest project, the $700 million Beaver Stadium renovation, will continue in 2026. It’s still on track to be completed for the fall of 2027, Vinnie James, Penn State’s deputy athletics director for internal operations, said during the Pinstripe Bowl pregame press conference in December.
But the 2026 season is when fans will begin to see the structure of the new west side, or the visiting sideline, really start to take shape.
“Still won’t be completed, obviously, everything that’s behind it, but that structure will start to really be showing itself, and we can see the volume and the magnitude of what that west side will ultimately be,” James said. “And then a lot of the work that’s going on is infrastructure work behind it.”
The university’s board of trustees approved the up-to-$700 million project in May 2024. The project includes a 21,000-square-foot welcome center, improved circulation, concourse expansion, new restrooms, upgraded concession offerings, new premium seating, improved field lighting, and enabling year-round events and entertainment.
The large-scale demolition of the upper west side of the stadium, including the press box, began in January 2025. Temporary seating was installed for the past season to maintain capacity, and it will return for the 2026 season.
I-80, I-99 interchange near Bellefonte
The $259 million project to create a more efficient and safe connection between the two largest highways in Centre County is about a quarter of the way complete.
High-speed ramps are to be constructed to provide a direct connection between Interstates 80 and 99, eliminating the need for drivers to use state Route 26 to access either highway. A PennDOT civil engineer previously likened the project to a “triple layer cake.”
Five of the 10 bridges planned for the project are under construction, as well as one of four retaining walls. Box culverts, sign structures and changeable message boards are also part of the project.
PennDOT said it paid Pittsburgh-based Trumball Corp. about $64 million as of the beginning of December. Construction began in September 2024 and is expected to be complete by September 2030.
It’s the second of three phases in the overall project.
A $52 million interchange completed in 2022 provided direct access between I-80 and state Route 26. Glenn O. Hawbaker crews, meanwhile, are working on an $8.6 million project to reconstruct and widen state Route 26.
That phase began in November 2024 and is expected to be complete by November 2026.
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Bellefonte Waterfront Project
After years of delays, the long-awaited Bellefonte Waterfront project is expected to be put out for bid in 2026, pending the approval of one final hurdle.
The plans for the project were approved by the Bellefonte Borough Council in June, and show two buildings — a 268-space parking garage with 48 condominium units and 33,000 square feet of commercial space, and a six-story, 93-room, boutique hotel, a farm-to-table restaurant and a rooftop lounge — to be built in the grassy parcel of land above the Spring Creek, between West Lamb and West High streets.
The plans also show a small, uncovered parking lot to be constructed next to the parking garage, and the brick walking path that cuts through the grassy area will be converted into the two-way Dunlop Street. Before construction can begin though, the borough must vacate the portions of Dunlop Street it owns.
Once vacated, the ownership of the properties will fall to three businesses at either end of the street, and then those businesses will grant an easement to Bellefonte Waterfront Associates, so that the entity maintains full responsibility for the street’s construction and maintenance.
If everything goes smoothly, project developer Tom Songer hopes that he’ll be able to send the project out for bid in January, for an expected completion date around July 2027.
High Point Skatepark
More than a decade after it was first proposed, State College’s more-than-$2 million skate park is finally just a few months away from opening.
High Point Skatepark will host its grand opening on April 3, according to volunteer committee leader Gordon Kauffman III. Ground was broken in June, construction finished up in mid-December, and all that remains are some finishing touches after Kauffman said crews totaled 49 concrete pours.
The admission-free skate park was designed for all ages, skill levels and wheels — including skateboards, BMX-style bicycles, in-line skates and scooters. Key features for the 20,000-square-foot park include rideable ledges, stairs, rails, ramps and a quarter-pipe, plus new rock work, seating areas and a center courtyard.
The wheelchair-accessible skate park replaces High Point Park’s unused baseball field and will ultimately occupy about three acres of the six-acre lot.
“It’s a community space, and it’s important for the kids and the youth in the community to have a place to go to, to have a place outside to practice their craft and get both mental and physical exercise,” Kauffman told the CDT.
Champion BMX rider Jamie Bestwick first publicly proposed the idea of a skate park in September 2013. An ad hoc committee in 2017 recommended High Point Park as a more ideal fit thanks to its accessibility, and the borough announced a six-figure grant it received in 2020. Pro skater Jake Johnson, who grew up in State College, helped develop the park with his father and New Line Skateparks.
High Point Skate Park encountered many hurdles before local officials approved construction and secured enough funding for the project. But volunteers are hoping the community thinks it’s worth the wait.
“It’s beautiful,” Kauffman added.
The Stage at Talleyrand
A $1.5 to $2 million, 2,000-square-foot performance venue could be coming to Bellefonte’s Talleyrand Park annex this year, in a space behind Pelican’s Snoballs.
Michael Pratt, the director of Keller Engineers’ State College office, said during a borough council work session in early December that the project’s conceptual phase has been completed. Official land development plans are expected to be submitted to the borough following a brief design review in January, he said.
Along with the stage, two new walking paths will be built, and Talleyrand Park’s small municipal parking lot near Pelican’s will be reconstructed.
Parking will also be offered in the large municipal lot near CVS and along the roads that offer street parking near the park, and Interim Borough Manager Dave Pribulka said at the same work session that a parking agreement is in the works with the American Philatelic Society too, if need be.
No timeline for the overall completion of the stage has been shared to this point, and more information about the project can be found www.stageattalleyrand.org.
Amazon Fulfillment Center and Delivery Station
Located on a 46-acre lot along Penntech Road in the Benner Commerce Park, work is ongoing for what will be an Amazon fulfillment center and delivery station developed by the SunCap Property Group.
PennDOT and stormwater requirements, along with an on-site inspection, were completed in the spring, and construction on the 125,000-square-foot warehouse can be seen when passing by Exits 78A and B on Interstate 99, toward Bellefonte or the Benner and Rockview state prisons.
When plans for a fulfillment center in Benner Township were unveiled three years ago, Amazon was looking at building a significantly larger, 1 million-square-foot building on a 102-acre parcel of land. But as those plans were withdrawn and re-submitted, the project size decreased.
While the cost of the project and its exact timeline has yet to be shared, Marc Heintzman, an Amazon regional public relations representative, wrote in an email to the CDT in September that as the construction progresses, Amazon will work with “great local partners to keep the community apprised of updates, hiring initiatives and more.”
Heintzman also wrote that the center will create over 100 jobs when completed. Smitha Rao, a public relations and media lead at Amazon, wrote in an email to the CDT in late December that no further updates were available.
Benner Pike developments
Benner Township’s portion of the Benner Pike has seen a boom in development in recent years, which started when Rutter’s was built in 2020.
Several other developments have been completed or have broken ground since then, including some that will see construction continue into 2026.
One of these developments is the county’s first Wawa location, which will have 16 gas pumps on eight fueling islands, along with two entry points — primary access from Eagle Point, with a right-out exit directly onto Benner Pike, and access through the adjacent Dunkin’ property.
Construction on the 6,600-square-foot Wawa is expected to wrap up around late spring or early summer, shortly after the completion of a 12,000-square-foot, 98-room Tru by Hilton Hotel. According to a sign in front of that development, construction on the hotel will wrap up in February.
Along with Wawa and hotel, a Chipotle is currently being built in the Paradise Shopping Plaza in front of Giant, although a timeline has yet to be provided for when the fast food restaurant will be completed.
In another project that’s not as far along, plans for a subdivision for a parcel of land located directly across from Giant next to G. M. McCrossin Inc. were reviewed by the Benner Township supervisors in October.
The parcel is jointly-owned by Stuckey Automotive President Matt Stuckey and real estate developer Bob Poole, and will be separated into two lots — one to be developed by Stuckey, the other by Poole.
The Stuckey Ford dealership will be built on Stuckey’s lot, which will be moved a half-mile up the road from its current location at 2892 Benner Pike. Stuckey will then use the current dealership as a collision center. Two commercial businesses and two fast-food restaurants are planned on Poole’s lot.
While no official development plans have been submitted for either development yet, Stuckey said in October that he anticipates ground being broken on the dealership “around spring or summer of next year.”
This story was originally published January 3, 2026 at 5:25 AM.
