National coffee chain set to anchor shopping plaza at former State College Autoport
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- A Starbucks is the first known tenant slated for a new State College shopping plaza.
- Plans for the plaza are on hold as its developers make revisions ahead of a review.
- If plans are approved, it would become the ninth Starbucks operating in State College.
A national coffee chain is expected to open another State College location when a long-vacant property is finally redeveloped.
Starbucks will serve as the anchor of a series of retail spaces slated for development at the former Autoport motel along South Atherton Street, according to Kandy Weader of Bennett Williams Commercial. Her agency is pre-leasing spaces there as preliminary land development plans for the property remain on hold as project officials work to submit a revised proposal.
Starbucks is the first known tenant projected for the shopping plaza, whose original plans called for a large gas station and convenience store and six other restaurants and retail spaces. Those plans, submitted in February, were originally scheduled for review in April.
It remains unclear when the State College borough will receive an updated timeline from the developer behind the project at the former Autoport property, which has sat vacant for more than a decade. Daniel McCombie, a senior borough planner, said in late March that the developer was not withdrawing the original plans but instead revising them — a move he said likely indicates they will remain generally in line with plans shard with the borough in February.
Those original plans, drawn by PennTerra Engineering, Inc., appeared to show a four-phase project timeline that would begin with the construction of a 6,358-square-foot convenience store and a 14-pump fuel canopy on the property’s southeastern side. A second phase of construction at the property’s center showed five separate retail spaces ranging between 1,333 and 2,400 square feet.
In an email to the Centre Daily Times, Weader said Starbucks is expected to occupy a 2,033-square-foot endcap space equipped with a drive-thru lane and patio area.
In the original plans, a third phase of the project called for the construction of a larger, 5,484-square-foot restaurant with a drive-thru, as well as canopies for ordering and picking up food. The fourth and final phase of work would have spruced up an existing 3,548-square-foot storage building in the northwestern corner of the property.
The developer listed on the plans, South Atherton Real Estate of the Welteroth Property Group, has not responded to requests for comment regarding the project.
Before the project can move forward, the State College borough must receive updated plans from the developer. The borough’s five-member Design Review Board will examine the plans before passing them along to the planning commission for another review.
The planned Starbucks would become the chain’s ninth operating location in State College, through one of few standalone coffee shops. The company operates shops at 180 E. Beaver Ave., 232 W. College Ave. and 2030 N. Atherton St., joining five other locations inside Target stores, a Giant grocery store, Penn State’s HUB-Robeson Center and the university’s Paterno Library.
The former Autoport property along the 1400 block of South Atherton Street has sat vacant with little or no changes for years. Many trees were removed from the property in May 2024, marking the first signs of activity there in years.
The Autoport was Pennsylvania’s oldest operating motel when it closed in December 2015. Its former owners declared bankruptcy and sold the property for $2.1 million.
The property was nearly set for development when plans for a new 122-room Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel were submitted in January 2020, but the project never materialized. The site was posted for lease in June 2024.
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