Centre County’s $30M renovation of former nursing home almost complete. What’s next?

In 2021, Centre County began formulating a plan to convert the former Centre Crest building into a community services building. Now, about four years later, the $30 million project is finally nearing completion.

Located at 502 E. Howard St., construction at the 90-year-old building started in 2024 and is almost complete, with just some minor work to be finished before an occupancy permit can be attained in August, which county Administrator John Franek said was the goal at a commissioners’ meeting earlier this month.

The building will serve as a home for all of the county’s human services departments, including the children and youth services, mental health, intellectual disability, early intervention, drug and alcohol, veterans’ affairs, adult services and the office of aging departments.

Also located in the new building will be the county’s elections office, some members of its information technology staff, records and maintenance staff and the Bellefonte Senior Center.

An array of unique amenities has also been added to the building that the commissioners hope will contribute to an improved environment for county employees who are currently working in “really, really tight” Willowbank Building offices.

“One of the real issues in the human services business is the stress involved in working in that environment, and I think our folks have gone well out of their way to create an environment over there where a lot of those stresses will be answered,” Commissioner Steve Dershem said at Tuesday’s commissioners meeting.

JJ De La Cruz, the county’s communications coordinator, wrote in an email to the CDT that some of the new staff-geared amenities at the building include several new conference rooms and training areas, a market that will offer “convenient food options” to employees while at work, and a gym to ”facilitate physical and mental well-being before and after hours.”

A handful of amenities and thoughtful features have also been added for residents that visit the new building, De La Cruz wrote, such as soothing wall colors, natural light and spaces for families or individuals to carry out visits in private, home-like spaces — something that the Willowbank Building doesn’t currently offer much of.

The new building is also meant to encourage further cooperation and coordination among the county’s many human services departments, making things easier for both staff members and visitors to the new building.

“Sometimes when a family needs assistance from the county, there may be more than one department that they need to interact with, so having all these departments co-located means that they’ll be better able to collaborate with each other,” Commissioner Amber Concepcion said Tuesday. “I think that’s going to be a great convenience to our residents as well.”

Centre County Commissioner Mark Higgins said that the new building will also make storing and using the office of elections’ equipment easier. And large meetings will be able to be held there without filling “two or three different overflow rooms,” he said, although for the time being, the commissioners’ meetings will remain at the Willowbank Building.

While official move-in and grand opening dates have yet to be determined, Higgins said Tuesday that once they dates are settled, they will be shared at future commissioners’ meetings, which take place at 10 a.m., every Tuesday at the Willowbank Building.

After the new building opens, a $110,000 construction project will take place while it’s occupied that will make upgrades to the parking lot, correct some issues found within the building’s walls and add some smaller upgrades to the building’s interior.

The construction phase will only last four months and is expected to be completed by the end of November.