Bellefonte Waterfront Project to add ‘rooftop experience’ but vision remains the same
An amendment to the Bellefonte Waterfront Business District zoning height was approved by the Bellefonte council Monday so a long-planned hotel and restaurant can include a “rooftop experience.”
Tom Songer, developer for the Bellefonte Waterfront Project, approached the Bellefonte Planning Commission and Borough Council in March about changing the building height from 65 feet to 75 feet. The project consists of a promenade along Spring Creek with access to commercial and residential space, and a boutique hotel with a farm-to-table restaurant. The height change would add another story to the hotel for a rooftop bar/restaurant.
Though the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the plans, Songer told the council March 21 that the vision has not changed.
“We want to do a high-quality development on the Bellefonte Waterfront and that will include a 80 room hotel, and also a farm-to-table restaurant on the first floor along with meeting rooms on the second floor, and then three floors of rooms,” Songer said.
On top of the hotel, he wants to add a rooftop experience, an idea he credits to Bellefonte resident Ed Olsen.
“When you’re in this lounge area up on the rooftop, you’ll be looking out at a panoramic view of Bellefonte. And that really is the reason why we’re requesting the change in the height limit,” Songer said. Indoor and outdoor seating will be available, he said, weather permitting.
The council majority voted Monday to change the building height in the waterfront business district from 65 feet to 75. Council member Deborah Cleeton was the sole vote of opposition.
Planned with the boutique hotel is a parking garage and condominiums. The first floor of the condominium building will be retail space, with five floors of condominiums. The building will have seven condominiums on each floor, varying between one, two and three bedrooms.
“It’s our intent to — when we move forward with the condominium construction — to actually give people the opportunity to customize their unit just like you would customize your home,” he said.
“The idea with the promenade and everything we’re planning here is to bring people to this area. But more importantly, people are going to come stay at the hotel, they’re going to patronize all the businesses downtown. And to us, that’s one of our main goals, is to help all the other businesses that are here,” Songer said.
During the council’s discussion on March 21, Bellefonte Borough Manager Ralph Stewart said there’s not much room for growth in the borough and this is a redevelopment project that will help the tax base.
“It was always going to be a redevelopment project to help our tax base. We lost the Bush House in 2006 and there was a couple older buildings that really had no value to the tax base, and we, the borough, turned that project over to the Industrial Development Authority and redeveloped that area into what it is today but we’re always hoping for something big to improve our tax base. So I have to look at that. We have really no room to grow in the borough,” Stewart said.
Songer hopes to have construction start this summer.
