New Convenience Store Planned for Vacant Property on West College Avenue in Ferguson Township

A new convenience store is in the works for a Ferguson Township property that has been vacant for more than five years.

The township’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved Drytop Beverages LLC’s request to transfer a liquor license for a convenience store to be located at 913 W. College Ave. The property has sat empty since Nittany Minit Mart closed its location there in June 2020 after its lease was not renewed.

Dry Top Beverages LLC is transferring the class E liquor license from 173 E. Main St. in Rebersburg. The license allows only for the sale of beer or other malt beverages in quantities of 12-packs or smaller.

The business will be a convenience store only and will not have fuel pumps. The pumps that had been on the site have been removed, and Chris Summers, a State College attorney and sole owner of Dry Top Beverages LLC, said “the environmental concerns are no longer present there.”

“We’ve gotten a clean bill of health from the [Department of Environmental Protection],” Summers said.

Supervisors asked no questions about other plans for the store or renovating or replacing the building.

“My understanding is that those are addressed when we get a land development plan,” board chair Jeremie Thompson said.

Summers called the property a “gateway to the township” in the West College Neighborhood District where his business can help generate economic activity and serve as a neighborhood resource.

“We’re really aiming here to make this neighborhood more walkable and lessen the vehicular traffic,” Summers said. “And we don’t want people driving far away, and that’s the intent of this neighborhood on the West College District, is to make the district and the neighborhood more walkable. Having a convenience store where you can go get milk and bread and eggs is part and parcel of having that community be walkable. There’s nowhere to do that right now that’s walkable. So we think this project lends itself very well to creating that area where residents can walk.

“And of course, one of the attributes of that and making this a profitable going concern is having some alcohol [for sale]. It [will be] beer. This is a six-pack license.”

One resident spoke in opposition to the transfer. Rhonda Stern, a resident of North Butz Street, said her primary concern is about making another place to buy alcoholic beverages available in close proximity to the Haus apartment building across the street and another student housing complex planned nearby on West College Avenue.

She said she’s worried about the easier access to alcohol combined with walking along a busy street.

“The tenants of these apartment buildings will already have access to two alcohol outlets, one two blocks away at the HiWay Pizza and another a half mile away at the
already approved Rutters,” Stern said. “Adding a third outlet for alcohol purchase directly across the street from some 500 college students along this already dangerous corridor is not prudent or safe. Easy access to alcohol will increase the possibilities of alcohol-related incidents.”

Stern also noted that the township’s ordinance for liquor license transfers states that criteria for consideration “may include” proximity to other licensed liquor establishments, which “shall not be closer than 2,500 feet.”

Board vice-chair Omari Patterson said that the ordinance is too open to subjective interpretation by stating that supervisors “may include,” instead of “shall include,” certain criteria in making the decision.

“If we truly want to do something about it we need to change this ordinance so that it’s much more clear and much less subjective in the way that it’s allowing board members to kind of choose their own adventure for reasons that may or may not be arbitrary,” Patterson said.

He added that he did not want to see the building continue to sit empty.

“We’re talking about adults here that are going to make a decision,” Patterson said. “And that space is empty right now. I just don’t agree that we should have empty spaces. It’s up to the market to find the highest and best use for a certain space and to go ahead and bring businesses to the township.”