With the Bellefonte Waterfront project ‘on hold,’ when will construction start?
The Bellefonte Waterfront project is facing another delay.
The project, which includes a boutique hotel, parking garage, condos and commercial/retail space along Spring Creek in downtown Bellefonte, has been planned for years and has faced many delays including the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tom Songer, a co-managing partner on the project, said the project is “on hold” right now.
“At the current time the Bellefonte Waterfront Project is on hold,” Songer wrote in an email earlier this month. “We hope to begin construction in the spring of 2024.”
He said high costs of construction and interest rates are a factor, and they’re currently doing “value engineering” to see if the cost can be reduced.
The Bellefonte Waterfront, between High and Lamb streets, opened in August 2016 as a recreation area for the community. The site was previously occupied by the Historic Bush House Hotel and the Cerro Brass Warehouse, among others.
The Bellefonte borough approved the subdivision and preliminary land development plans in 2019 and the Bellefonte Waterfront Associates purchased the three lots that make up the waterfront project, according to the project’s website.
Originally, construction was planned to begin in the summer of 2020, but the pandemic stopped that from happening. It’s been delayed several times since then. The most recent update on the website is from October 2022, which states “Because of the uncertain times that we are experiencing with respect to material costs and delivery times along with increasing costs to finance the project we have had to delay the project.” At that time, developers had hoped construction would start sometime in 2023.
The entire project includes a promenade along Spring Creek from High Street to Lamb Street, a boutique hotel with 80 guest rooms, meeting rooms, a farm-to-table restaurant and rooftop lounge, a parking garage with 300+ spaces, and a six-story condominium complex, with retail space on the first floor.
Last month, Doug Johnson, Bellefonte borough council president, said the council had not had any recent formal conversations with the developer but remained optimistic.
“All are still optimistic it will move forward,” Johnson said in an email on May 24.
