Penn State trustees voted Friday to buy the Kissell Motorsports property in Ferguson Township for $2.6 million, adding about 1.3 acres to the university’s holdings on West College Avenue.
No trustees dissented in the vote, held as part of a regular board meeting at the Nittany Lion Inn.
Motorsports owner Craig Kissell said he plans to relocate his business from the site, 1445 W. College Ave., by summer’s end. He has yet to announce a new location.
Meanwhile, Penn State is developing a long-term vision for how it will use the Kissell acreage and its other recent real-estate purchases on West College Avenue, said university Senior Vice President Al Horvath. He said a master plan may come together within a few years.
University housing may be one use for the land, Horvath said, speaking in what he called speculative terms. ‘It all depends on how much of that land we own, how much we don’t own, and how it’s configured,’ he said.
Penn State in 2008 bought the former O.W. Houts property at North Buckhout Street and West College Avenue, about three blocks east of Kissell Motorsports. The Houts family offered the 5.6-acre area for $3.4 million, according to Penn State.
Then, last year, the university bought 1.65 acres at West College Avenue and Butz Street. That $2.5 million acquisition, also from Craig and Kathleen Kissell, is practically a stone’s throw west of the former Houts site.
Kissell Motorsports is roughly two blocks west of Butz Street.
‘I have a very good relationship with the people I deal with at Penn State,’ Kissell told StateCollege.com. ‘We negotiate directly; there’s no intermediary, so we arm-wrestle. We negotiate face-to-face. Generally speaking, it’s been a very positive experience.’
In the short term, Horvath said, the university athletics department would like to use the Kissell Motorsports property in conjunction with the adjoining Penn State golf courses. The existing 24,000-square-foot Kissell Motorsports building — the former Athletic Club — may be used for golf-course-equipment storage and other maintenance, Horvath said, though ‘it isn’t fully fleshed out at this point.’
‘We’ve got people out in the real-estate market all the time,’ monitoring for property that may interest Penn State, Horvath said. He said some other parties had been interested in the Kissell Motorsports land, as well.
Ferguson Township is looking to rezone that stretch of College Avenue and to encourage more commercial and residential development there, perhaps in multi-story buildings. In a trustees document, the university administration noted that the latest Kissell purchase ‘eliminates the possibility of adverse ownership.’
Horvath said the university has moved quickly to acquire the West College Avenue properties as they’ve come onto the market. With the Kissell Motorsports property, he said, ‘one big driver’ in the deal was the athletics department’s interest.
In official reports, Penn State has indicated generally that the College Avenue purchases ‘provide future expansion opportunities.’
In other news at Friday’s Board of Trustees meeting:
- The board approved a $26.1 million addition to the Moore Building, on the University Park campus. Construction is scheduled for completion in January 2012. The existing portion of the building will be renovated as part of the project.
- Trustees announced the elections of multiple board members. Penn State alumni have re-elected Steve Garban and Paul Suhey to the board, and elected new trustee Stephanie Nolan Deviney. Agricultural delegates to the university re-elected trustees Keith Eckel and Samuel Hayes Jr. The board itself elected two trustees representing business and industry: incumbent John Surma and newcomer Karen Peetz. Penn State trustees serve three-year terms.
Related content: Full text of Penn State President Graham Spanier’s morning address to the board
Earlier coverage: Penn State To Buy More Property Along College Avenue
