Titan Energy Park dedication ceremony honors contributors, celebrates history

Titan Energy Park held a dedication ceremony Thursday to honor a mix of individuals and families that helped shape the former metal manufacturing plant into the growing business hub it is today, and to reflect on the plant’s rich industrial history.

Hosted in partnership with the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, the ceremony honored three people, Gary Dunklebarger, Bob Kersavage and Maggie Leahey, and three families — the Latterner, Novinger and Traynor families — for their hard work, vision and dedication that helped shape the history of the site.

Starting in the early 1900s, the 173-acre site was home to several manufacturing operations before it closed in 2008. A local investment company, Navitus, purchased the site in 2012, and there are now more than a dozen businesses located there.

To show gratitude to those who helped revitalize Titan Energy Park, each family now has a substation at the park named after them, one of the park’s roads has been named after Dunklebarger, a groundwater spring at the park has been named after Kersavage and a small house within the park was named after Leahey.

Joe Leahey, the owner of the Titan Energy Park and president of G. M. McCrossin Inc., spoke highly at the ceremony of those receiving the honors, which includes his daughter, Maggie Leahey. The park that people know today wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for them, he said.

Leahey praised Kersavage, who he said spent years trying to convince Navitus to purchase the property, and Dunklebarger, who has worked at the park as an electrician for 57 years and counting.

“Gary [Dunklebarger’s] a backbone of this place,” Leahey said. “Someone hit a telephone pole a month or two ago and it knocked out power to the place, and Gary came in on a Saturday to try and fix the problem. ... He’s a dedicated man.”

In addition to a road being named after him, Dunklebarger was also honored with a drink now served at Titan Hollow called “The Dunklebarger,” and was presented a Pennsylvania state flag by State Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte.

“This flag exemplifies what our beautiful Commonwealth is about, and the virtues of that Commonwealth,” Benninghoff said. “One virtue that may not be listed on the flag that I want to provide you with, and thank you for, is hard work. You’re truly a dedication and an honor of what American workers would like to be perceived as.”

From former plant to business hub

While the Titan Energy Park may be a bustling business and restaurant hub that currently houses 10 tenants, including Axemann Brewery, Fez Records and the Titan Market, it wasn’t always that way.

First opening its doors in 1915 as the Alpha Metal Company, which was soon renamed the Titan Metal Company, the business changed ownership again (along with its name) in 1959 when Cerro Metals bought the company.

Benninghoff estimated that at its peak, Cerro employed around 1,000 to 2,000 people.

After 48 years of success under Cerro’s name, ownership changed hands once more in 2007 when Bolton Metals purchased it. Bolton eventually closed down nearly all of the plant’s operations in 2008, only maintaining a fusible alloy manufacturing facility.

For four years the majority of the plant sat unused, until Navitus LLC bought it in 2012 and kickstarted what would be a lengthy renovation process.

Following eight years of cleanup and repairs, the park officially had its first new tenant in 2020 with the opening of Axemann Brewery.

Since then, business growth has continued at the park, with Little Mamma’s Pizza soon to join the lineup.

“Obviously [the Titan Energy Park] is a very vital part of Bellefonte and the county at this point — there are so many businesses here now, with well over 100 people being employed on-site,” Centre County Commissioner Mark Higgins said at the event. “It’s been a wonderful addition to the greater Bellefonte area. ... We’re very pleased to see its success.”

A new partnership

It was also announced at the ceremony that the park would enter into an official partnership with the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, which will look to attract more out-of-the-area events to Brass 16823, an event venue located within the park.

“A sector that we really wanted to focus on more is meetings. We’re in the middle of the state — we should be a natural place for state associations to hold their meetings here in Centre County,” HVAB President and CEO Fritz Smith said at the ceremony. “So Joe [Leahey], who’s heard me talk over the years about the fact that we need a meeting space here, said ‘what do you think, could we bring meetings here?

“You look at the places where meetings are held usually, and it’s a room with four walls — you can’t see anything ... [Brass 16823] is a different kind of a facility, and as soon as I started to see events happen here I said, ‘You know what? I think we can make something of this.’”

It’s also Smith’s expectation that the two hotels being constructed along the Benner Pike and the hotel included in the Bellefonte Waterfront Project’s plans will contribute to Bellefonte’s status as both a premier meeting and tourist destination, and help the park see “another 100 years of success.”

Moving forward, HVAB will be launching a joint marketing campaign with the park to help “expose the facility to media planners and event planners around the country.”