Warehouse, hundreds of jobs planned for Benner Commerce Park, but employer is unknown
A 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center warehouse is proposed for the Benner Commerce Park within Benner Township. The center could bring nearly 700 jobs to Centre County — but the employer has yet to be announced.
Christopher Schnure, Centre County’s subdivision and land development planner, presented a final land development plan during Tuesday’s commissioners meeting. The plan showed the development of a 1,080,289-square-foot fulfillment center warehouse on 103 acres of land at the end of Penntech Drive.
The primary access point for the warehouse will be Venture Drive, with employee parking along the western side, and a tractor trailer parking lot and bays along the eastern and southern sides of the warehouse.
“There’s approximately 900 parking spots, but the number of employees (is) going to be different,” Schnure said. “There’s going to be two shifts. During the day shift there’s going to be approximately 370 employees and at the night shift about 313 employees. But the reason for the 900 parking stalls is there’s going to be overlap of the night and day shift, as well as during some of the seasonal employees which add a little bit more to it as well.”
Commissioner Michael Pipe asked who the employer behind the warehouse is, but representatives of the project — Carly Davis, project manager at Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, and Brian Dunn and Matt Virgin of SunCap Property Group — declined to share, stating they were under nondisclosure agreements. That announcement will be made “in the coming months,” they said.
Pipe said with a warehouse that size and potentially 700 employees and 70-80 truck bays, “very few businesses come to mind.” Commissioner Steve Dershem said it would bring a lot of jobs to the area.
“This is going to bring a lot of jobs to Centre County, it’s pretty clear that … development of this magnitude is going to have a pretty positive impact to our community,” Dershem said.
Dershem questioned if traffic patterns and impacts had been studied. Schnure said the traffic study is being reviewed by three parties, including the Benner Township traffic engineer, Langan Engineers and PennDOT.
“Benner Commerce Park has always had plans for a traffic signal at the end of ... Penntech Drive and the Benner Pike,” Schnure said. “There will end up being a traffic signal at that location. And that’s the very minimal improvements that are going to be needed for the traffic flow.” Most of the traffic will be exiting and turning left to enter the I-99 interchange.
Because of the proposed warehouse’s proximity to Fisherman’s Paradise, Commissioner Mark Higgins asked what control and mitigation would be in place in the event there was a large oil leak from a truck. Davis said Benner Township has a stormwater management ordinance that addresses the volume and quality of water, so that is taken into consideration in the plan, Schnure said. Davis said the stormwater management basin is a dry basin; none of the stormwater will be released into any of the state waters.
Commissioners reviewed a memorandum of understanding between the county, township and the developer. The MOU outlines that the developer agrees to reimburse Benner Township for the costs associated with the township engineers processing, reviewing, inspecting and approving the engineering details of the plans. The MOU will be voted on during next week’s commissioners meeting, under the consent agenda.
The MOU is one part of the plan, Schnure said; the Centre County Planning Commission will review and comment on the plan during its May 24 meeting. More details on the site and development will be discussed then.
This story was originally published April 19, 2022 at 3:48 PM.
