Arnold Takes Helm in Downtown State College, Wants to ‘Hear All Sides’

George M. Arnold doesn’t presume to have all the answers for downtown State College.

But he is listening, Arnold said in an interview last week.

A couple weeks into his new role as the Downtown Improvement District executive director, Arnold, 42, said he has met with about two dozen retailers.

It’s the first among many outreach efforts he has planned, Arnold said, as he gets to know and understand all downtown stakeholders – and how to help them.

‘I’m trying to get out and hear all sides,’ said Arnold, of Harris Township.

Already, he said, he has heard retailers’ worries that foot traffic appears to be slipping. From developers, he has heard a wish for a more-friendly environment for downtown redevelopment.

And he has begun to set a preliminary to-do list. That includes working with a DID committee that helps to guide downtown marketing strategies, Arnold said.

A core objective for him, he said, is to build activity in the downtown. But he made clear he has no intentions to move unilaterally, instead relying on input from parties across the community, Arnold indicated.

It’s a community he has adopted as his own. Having grown up in the Lansdale area, he came to State College as a student at Penn State. At the university, he crafted his own major in the College of the Liberal Arts, fusing interests in architecture, management and communication.

He graduated in 1992 and stayed in the area. Enthralled with the quality of life, Arnold said, he and his wife have chosen to stay and raise their two daughters here.

Most recently, he worked as a project superintendent for the past five years at Berks Homes before joining the DID as executive director on Feb. 13. His other previous jobs include work as a program director for a leadership-training organization and work in operations supervision and production management.

At the DID, he succeeds Jody Alessandrine, who left in July to join Downtown Toms River, N.J., as its executive director. Mary Kay Williams, a human-resources consultant, helped to guide the State College DID in the interim.

Arnold said he sees his downtown role largely as that of a connector, bridging property-owner, retailer, borough, university and other interests to help steer the downtown and its priorities. (The board-governed DID, funded mostly through a downtown tax levy, is charged with promoting downtown business vitality. It pursues the goal through marketing, special events, aesthetic campaigns and other efforts.)

In his last job, Arnold said, he served as a liaison among home buyers, vendors and developers. So he’s well in tune with navigating multiple interests, he said.

The DID leadership, in announcing Arnold’s appointment last month, said it looks forward to his encouraging participation and input from downtown stakeholders.

He ‘brings with him a familiarity and understanding of our community, a community in which he and his wife are raising their two children,’ a DID statement reads. ‘His unique blend of professional experience and commitment to State College is well suited to his position with the Downtown State College Improvement District.’

Arnold, for his part, said he has ‘always enjoyed downtown State College.

‘And as I think about downtown State College, I have good memories,’ he said. ‘I saw this (job) as an opportunity to make a difference and somehow be helpful in continuing to keep a welcome and thriving downtown.’

Working together, Arnold went on, downtown stakeholders can ‘do some great things here.’

DID leaders have long hoped Fraser Centre will be among those ‘great things.’ But the planned multi-use complex, to take shape on the 100 block of South Fraser Street, is several years behind schedule. Driven heavily by the DID, the project has been battered by a lagging economy, lead developer Susquehanna Real Estate has said.

Its latest blow came this winter, when a cinema operator backed out of the project. It remains unclear how the project will evolve now or when groundbreaking may occur.

Arnold aired an optimistic note about Fraser Centre, though. He imagines Susquehanna is looking for ways to make the project work – and the effort still has the support of the DID, he said.

Diversifying the downtown economy is among the plan’s key goals.

Speaking to the community at large, Arnold said the area ‘really pulls together the best of many worlds.’ And he has ‘a lot to understand’ about how to help the downtown’s varied constituents, he said.

‘There is an energy to’ downtown State College, Arnold said. ‘ … It’s always great to come back home.’

Earlier coverage

• George M. Arnold Named Executive Director of Downtown State College Improvement District (Feb. 8, 2012)

• Leaving State College, Alessandrine Argues for Downtown Density, Redevelopment (July 31, 2011)