Confusion, delays and disappointment: HERE State College not ready for move-in, surprising tenants
Their bags were packed, their first month’s rent paid — but some tenants are finding HERE State College, a new downtown apartment building on Hiester Street, still isn’t ready to move into.
Hope Tomacruz, a Penn State sophomore, thought everything was fine as recently as Tuesday. But she was informed Wednesday that her $1,799/month apartment wouldn’t be ready for move-in — no rooms on the 11th or 12th floors are ready, according to officials — and HERE management couldn’t provide a timeline on when she’d be able to call her paid apartment home, whether it would be a few days, weeks or months.
Due to a six-week construction delay stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, the first 10 floors of the building didn’t even receive a temporary certificate of occupancy until early Friday evening, according to Tom King, assistant State College borough manager of public safety, meaning no one was able to move in before then. But those on the 11th and 12th floors, like Tomacruz, are especially out of luck.
“I’m upset because I was already completely packed up and looking forward to this and, two days before I was supposed to move in, they told me,” she said. “Not even a couple weeks in advance. It was kind of devastating.”
In the meantime, HERE has told Tomacruz and others that it will put them up in a hotel while they wait, according to an email sent to tenants. But neither Tomacruz, nor her mother, are pleased with the alternative — the Quality Inn at 1274 N. Atherton St., a hotel that’s a 17-minute walk from the most northwestern point of campus. That’s a much different location than what should be her downtown apartment, which is barely a 2-minute stroll away.
Can Tomacruz just switch her apartment to one on the first 10 floors? Can she just break her lease? She doesn’t know; her mother said that as of Friday, no one has returned their calls.
“It’s almost unbelievable,” Tomacruz’s mother, Mary, said. “They gave us no inkling it was going to be delayed.”
On Friday afternoon, the modern building at 131 Hiester St. was still surrounded by scaffolding and construction workers in yellow vests and hard hats. Some siding was also still missing from the silver structure.
Nearby, at HERE’s College Avenue office, a sign was posted on the door that said it was “temporarily closed,” but a family of four stepped outside shaking their heads. The father, wearing a blue Penn State mask, declined to be interviewed but acknowledged his daughter’s apartment wasn’t ready. “What can you do?” he asked.
The “temporarily closed” office was unlocked and, when approached by a reporter, an unnamed employee declined to answer questions — outside of confirming the 11th and 12th floors were not ready. She said all questions would be forwarded to the company’s Chicago-based public relations firm, which provided a response late Friday evening several hours after initial online publication and directly responded to the CDT’s questions by Saturday afternoon.
“We had been working to make up time lost during the six-week shutdown,” a spokesperson wrote. “Residents were notified as soon as we knew construction would not be able to meet the original delivery schedule, despite allocating all available resources to do so. As you can imagine, this is a rapidly evolving situation and we are doing our best to push progress and communication.”
The firm also said it is working with its construction team to open up the 11th and 12th floors “within the next few weeks.”
“I would just like to know,” Tomacruz said. “I need them to give me a date when they think it will be done. I would really appreciate it if they would tell me an exact date it would be done.”
Penn State classes start Monday.
This story was originally published August 21, 2020 at 7:29 PM.
