5 businesses planned in former Bellefonte Rite Aide building. What to know
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- A multi-use space containing five businesses could come to Bellefonte’s former Rite Aid.
- No council action was taken for the space on Tuesday.
- Pending completion of various conditions, plans could be up for approval soon.
The former Rite Aid building in Bellefonte has been empty for more than two years, but five new businesses are now planned for the former pharmacy.
Bellefonte Borough Council discussed the plans during Tuesday’s meeting, after Cedar Cliff Properties LLC submitted plans for five new commercial businesses to be built inside the 14,673-square-foot-building that’s located at 821 E. Bishop St.
Cedar Cliff Properties, which is used by local Jersey Mike’s franchisees Matt and Christie Patterson to open new locations, bought the building for $1.5 million in October, Statecollege.com previously reported.
The five businesses planned include a sandwich shop, a coffee shop, a fitness center, a phone carrier store and a to-be-determined, eatery-related tenant. The names of the businesses were not included in the agenda or mentioned at the meeting. If the sandwich shop were to become a Jersey Mike’s, it would be the chain’s fourth location in Centre County, and first in Bellefonte.
The fitness center would be the largest of the planned businesses, taking up 5,800 square feet at the back of the building. Next would be the eatery at 1,920 square feet, followed by the 1,848-square-foot coffee shop, the 1,713-square-foot phone carrier store and the 1,694-square-foot sandwich shop — all located in the front of the building.
According to a memo sent to the borough on Dec. 31 from PennTerra Engineering, which was included in Tuesday’s agenda, new doors would be installed at the front of the building and a pickup window would be installed on the west side of the building for customers for the coffee shop. Additionally, the front of the building would be raised 16 inches to better accommodate American Disabilities Act access.
The building’s existing drive-thru would also be removed, and three parking spaces will be made in its place, which brings the total amount of on-site parking spots to 70, including five ADA-accessible spots.
At a previous borough planning commission meeting, the commission recommended conditional approval of the plans, although no action was taken on the plans Tuesday night. Interim manager Dave Pribulka said that the plan’s remaining conditions were “substantive enough that we don’t feel this is ready for council action.”
“One of the conditions that’s not listed in those items on your agenda is the verification that [Cedar Cliff Properties LLC] submitted and received approval for their component one sewage facilities planning module, which has to go to the Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection,” he said.
Pribulka also added that once the project’s plans have advanced “to the point we feel comfortable in recommending this for conditional approval,” that they would be seen again for council action “hopefully in pretty short order.”
More information on the multi-use space will be shared at a future Bellefonte Borough Council meeting, which typically start at 7:30 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of the month. A work session is also held at 6:30 p.m. before each meeting.