State College planning hears plans for new PSU student housing halls. See renderings
Members of the State College Planning Commission heard plans Wednesday for a 1,505-bed student housing project that is part of a public-private partnership between Penn State and Greystar Development East.
The four residence halls are planned for the corner of Hastings Road and University Drive on campus, which is currently long-term parking. The project will be completed in two phases; the first two halls (about 876 beds) along Hastings Road will be ready for the 2028 academic year, and the remaining two halls will be ready for the 2029 academic year, Christopher Nasuti, an engineer for HRG, the civil engineering firm on the project, said.
There will be 753 total parking spaces. Of those, 353 will be on site, 16 will be ADA (four will be at each building), and the remaining spaces will be leased parking from Penn State. Those will be dedicated parking spaces for the housing facility, Nasuti said, not shared parking.
Two buildings will be built along Hastings Road, one along University Drive and a fourth building will be along College Avenue. Nasuti said there were previously some concerns about how the buildings will look from College Avenue.
“We are protecting some of the legacy and heritage trees on our site, as well as along University Drive and College Avenue, where we’re going to protect some of the existing trees to buffer … the view from College Avenue and University as people are coming in and out, they’re not just going to be exposed to looking at the four buildings there, they will have the natural environment between the road and the buildings themselves,” Nasuti said.
Matt Lam, Director and Design Architect at WDG Architecture, which is working with Greystar on the project, said the buildings won’t be as visible from College Avenue and people will mostly see the tops of the buildings.
Health and wellness amenities include walkable pedestrian paths and streetscapes, direct access to bike infrastructure, two outdoor amenity terraces, outdoor plantings, green spaces and gathering areas, and year-round fitness centers.
The Penn State board of trustees approved a ground lease for the project with Greystar Development East last November. The university will lease the property to Greystar and Greystar will develop the residence halls. The commission also reviewed the preliminary subdivision plan for the project, as Greystar is required to submit a plan that shows the area, about 16.8 acres, that will be leased to them from the university. The commission will give the borough council a recommendation on the plan at a future date.
Although Penn State has not done many ground leases, borough planning director Ed LeClear said many universities have them.
Since a ground lease for the project was approved by the trustees, it has not been without controversy. Teamsters Local 8 President Jonathan Light took issue with the partnership contracting out work that is typically done by union members, and at least one trustee questioned if the development that’s close to the Lasch Football Building will cater to football players and other student-athletes. The university has said any non-first year student will be eligible to live there.
Penn State has not released the terms for the ground lease, including how long it would last or how much the lease costs. But when the trustees approved the project, Sara Thorndike, senior vice president for finance and business/treasurer at Penn State, said it is a more than $20 million deal for the university.
Renderings of the project
The Planning Commission saw renderings of the Hastings and University Student Housing Facility. See what the proposal looks like below.
