Plans for apartment complex on South Atherton Street updated. What to know
The State College Planning Commission heard an updated plan for a four-story apartment complex on South Atherton Street Thursday evening.
The proposed mixed-use building for 734 S. Atherton Street, State College includes 126 apartment units (195 bedrooms) and about 28,000 square feet of commercial space in the lower levels, which will likely be self-storage.
Two hundred and nine parking spaces will be provided underneath the building.
Since the previous final plan was reviewed by the borough, the property was sold and the new owners did some redesign of the project, Ed LeClear, planning and community development director for State College, said. The previous submissions for the project were also the result of an appeal to the Centre County Court of Common Pleas and settlement related to density requirements and the number of units required. The revised plan will be reviewed by the applicant’s counsel and the borough’s solicitor for compliance with the settlement terms.
One of the major changes with the new plan is all access to the building will be from one level, rather than two.
“This building proposes that all of their parking will be on one structured level, and it will all be accessed through Logan Avenue,” Tony Fruchtl, of PennTerra Engineering, said. “They are proposing to put six parking spaces right along the building, they’re parallel spaces, and those would be reserved for deliveries, drop off, ride share, etc.”
Fruchtl said there is a traffic impact study currently being reviewed, since the traffic has shifted from coming out of the building on both sides to just the Logan Avenue side.
“There was a proposal to actually put a median in Atherton Street, right at Logan Avenue. There was some concern there for pedestrian safety and crossing. I know the betterment project for the road included a crosswalk. This would actually give pedestrians a refuge crossing the street there. Also tends to slow folks down as they would as they would be coming through there,” Fruchtl said. “So that is still under review, but again, at least preliminarily, discussions with both PennDOT and the borough seem to favor those improvements.”
It will be a right turn only exiting Logan Avenue, LeClear said.
Building layout
Jacob Unzicker, of Mode 3 Architecture, said the development has been designed with the health and wellness of residents in mind, and provides both indoor and outdoor areas for recreation and interaction.
The proposal includes a large exterior courtyard amenity space, on-site fitness and other common areas for tenant activity inside, he said.
Most of the lower level of the building is structured parking, Unzicker said, with a lower level lobby, mail and package rooms and secure bike storage.
The first floor is fronting on South Atherton Street, where the pedestrian access is, with an entry lobby, but most of the level is commercial retail.
“It’s indicated as shell right now, that would be a future fit out that would be anticipated to be self-storage use,” Unzicker said.
There are some apartments in the east wing of the first level, he said, and the level has an outdoor courtyard. The remainder of the floors, two through four, are entirely residential floors with apartments and interior amenity spaces, he said.
“There’s a mix of one and two bedroom apartment unit styles in the project, ranging in size from 700 to 900 square feet, and we do have bedroom to bathroom parity in the project, meaning that every resident has their own bathroom as well as bedroom,” Unzicker said.
Anyone can live in the apartments but they are furnished and rented out by bed, not unit, so it is geared more toward students.
Timeline
The developers plan to have permits secured by June 24 and construction starting in September or October.
Construction is anticipated to be completed by July or August 2027, with building occupancy in August 2027.
