Building boom in downtown SC...link
- Thread starter Richard the LIONhearted
- Start date
Gee, Borough Council just keeps putting more students downtown. Then they can reap millions in tax dollars and building fees. Oh wait! damn those students for partying after a football game.
At least it's off campus. I did a huge putting green years ago for UNF in Jax for a new dorm complex. Lazy river, big pool, volleyball/basketball courts. Inside there was a convenience store, workout gym, and lounges to study, watch tv, or play video games.
I thought back to my first room in Shunk in the summer. We had a fan and a stereo.
As we put our kids further and further in debt. I think back to when I graduated. My starting salary was triple the principal for all my loans combined. Yeah, we care about our kids.
From a college nostalgia standpoint I hope the new highrise developments never creep into the space from College Ave. to Beaver Ave. and from Fraser St. to High St. The current downtown is a pretty special atmosphere for a college town. I know development is restricted in the College Heights neighborhood. Maybe something similar is in place for downtown.
"Downtown" has been bought
It will soon be unrecognizable
The entire downtown will soon be "Beaver Canyon"....... It is sad
It's a hell of a resource to lose .....and once lost - it ain't ever coming back
All for a few sheckels into the pockets of a few guys who only care about one thing - sheckels
45K kids gotta live somewhere. After freshman year at Stuart, I moved out to Nittany Crossings and Copper Beech Townhomes for my senior year bc I was unwilling to pay $5-600 for rent for a tiny bedroom and a shared bathroom. (These are 2003-2007 dollars, you can prob double that now)
It was nice living at a complex but I sucked living th whole way out on Vairo if you missed the last bus lol
It was nice living at a complex but I sucked living th whole way out on Vairo if you missed the last bus lol
When I was in college, my roommate and I paid $708/month for an unfurnished two bedroom apartment. Parking was $150 per semester. Not even a decade later, that same apartment is $1222 a month. Parking, now not even listed on the website, is well north of $200 per semester.
The arms race isn't going to stop until mommy & daddy stop paying such exorbitant prices for their little snowflakes' "education."
The arms race isn't going to stop until mommy & daddy stop paying such exorbitant prices for their little snowflakes' "education."
Trying to find a decent place to live that you can afford as a Penn State employee (non-administrator, non-faculty) is no easy feat either.
Indeed.
Real estate is also totally effed up in State College when compared with most of semi-rural Pennsylvania. I paid $170k for a 3BR condo. In this area, you either pay out the ass for a house on a small lot, or pay $100k for a shit hole in Bellefonte.
You got a good deal then. A 3BR condo in State College is now in the low 200's.
They just bulldozed the building that Canyon Pizza used to be in. I'm guessing they are going to build another high rise there with shops on the first floor.
Was thinking about this topic on the way to work this morning. After recent trips back to Dear Old State I felt the vibe of the town has really changed. It has been 2 years since I was up there and the amount of new building going on down town was jarring. Tony's Big Easy / LuLu's is now a Sheetz, and there's a Target at the corner of Frazier & Beaver. With new high end 'boutique' clothing stores and eateries along College Ave it's really taking on the vibe of an urban city center as opposed to a college town.
Could also not believe how popular the Lion's den has become - line around the corner down Calder halfway to the Deli. 10 years ago you could easily stroll in there on a Saturday night, pay $3 cover for the radio playing, and spend the night pulling your shoes from the floor. We asked the doorman why it was so packed and apparently it's the new dance place ala players/indigo. I'm sure previous generations have felt the same way, so correct me if I'm wrong, but the recent construction surge seems out of the norm.
Could also not believe how popular the Lion's den has become - line around the corner down Calder halfway to the Deli. 10 years ago you could easily stroll in there on a Saturday night, pay $3 cover for the radio playing, and spend the night pulling your shoes from the floor. We asked the doorman why it was so packed and apparently it's the new dance place ala players/indigo. I'm sure previous generations have felt the same way, so correct me if I'm wrong, but the recent construction surge seems out of the norm.
This is great for the town. The more developments like this that springs up the less students you have in more traditional areas. If I was a state college resident I would be very happy to see this rather then some guy buying homes and converting them in to apartments or the complexes miles from campus that add to the traffic in the area.
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Not sure what high end eateries and shops you're speaking about along College Avenue. But yes, the Target/H&M abomination is odd.
He looks like an idiot who can't even read an article because it says who the developer is.
https://collegiatedevelopment.com/team/
The only place I've ever seen where a neighborhood group can have barriers put on public roads to close them off from public traffic just to preserve their own home values.
Partying after a game is fine. Blocking streets and vandalizing public property is different. Are you saying that the borough should just let idiots vandalize what ever they want?
I think it's great. It will be a big boost for downtown businesses, so maybe we will see less attrition. I don't know why people think this is a negative.
The big surge in prices happened a couple of years ago (IIRC, 2014). Some home values surged by as much as 25-30 percent. The outlying towns like Centre Hall and Bellefonte also so an increase (just not as large). Low income housing is virtually gone from SC.
When I was looking for something in the $160-$180k price range, it was either a condo or a house in Bellefonte that was either a glorified closet or needed $50k in rehab work. There were some very nice condos in Zion in the $130k range but all were 2BR (a big no-no when it comes time to sell).
The areas near or around Millheim and Centre Hall has seen huge increases in the past several years as well. Had originally planned to look around that area but quickly realized it wasn't going to happen.
'Public' college education is the most 'for-profit' enterprise going today.
LOL. I know what you mean. I went back, a few years ago, to visit a friend that lived in College Heights. (Willard Circle). I had no idea how to get in and out with all the barriers.
If you want to find cheaper places, there are still some options in the Tyrone or Bald Eagle school districts as those are not as desirable as SC, Penns Valley or Bellefonte. But yeah... cost of living here has sharply increased.
There is a master plan that should help steer future development (hopefully in a sensible way):
http://www.statecollegepa.us/2450/Final-Draft-Plan
Football "Game Plans", I've heard it said, are all well and good until "someone punches you in the mouth".
Development "Master Plans"...... As we have already seen in State College...... Are good until someone starts waiving some $$$$$$ in front of a Zoning Board member (or has their proxies ON the zoning board)
I've served on an area commission in my place of residence. It can be interesting at times to see what goes on with zoning. Very tough to defeat an apartment development even if it is in the wrong place as it brings in a lot of tax dollars.
Say it ain't so!!!! I called 338 W. College Ave home for several years, one of the houses that would be demolished by this project. Now I am outraged!
Someone long ago had the foresight to restrict building height in downtown to 65 feet. This was the case for decades and helped create the iconic college town skyline that is downtown SC. Whether that restriction has gone away or now only applies to a smaller footprint, I don't know, but it would be a shame to ruin it.
The problem with zoning is it's a reactive rather than proactive thing. Just about every zoning ordinance in the state was literally copied and pasted from a handful or ordinances one engineering firm created in the 1970s. I'm not exaggerating when I say literally-- many people in PA would be surprised to know that the boundary between 2 of their zoning districts is the Conodoguinet Creek, but that's what was copied and not proofread or edited.
Every few years, something new comes along that zoning ordinances didn't cover-- the 80s was porn shops, 90s was cell towers, businesses created that people didn't dream of when ordinances were written. Zoning is always playing catch up. And the old "front yard must be yay deep, and there must be x number of parking spaces" doesn't cut it anymore.
