UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State’s Board of Trustees Friday (May 4) approved the sale of two adjacent parcels of undeveloped land, along Whitehall Road near the University Park campus, to Springton Point LP, a Pennsylvania limited partnership, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toll Bros. Inc., for $13.5 million. Together, the parcels cover more than 40 acres in Ferguson Township, Centre County. Closing on the sale will take place after Toll Bros. Inc. receives all necessary municipal approvals.
The parcels, which have been zoned for multi-family residential use in Ferguson Township, were listed for sale by the University in August 2011. The portions of land proposed for sale, formerly held by the Mellon Family Trust and the Richard King Mellon Foundation, were acquired by the University in July 1999 as part of a 1,110-acre purchase. The land has since been determined to be of no strategic value to the University, and has been sold in portions to various agencies as follows:
-- In 2011, the University’s Board of Trustees sold a .254-acre plot of undeveloped land to the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The parcel was adjacent to an existing church.
-- Also in 2011, the University sold a 25-acre parcel of undeveloped property to Ferguson Township and the Centre Region Council of Governments for the purposes of developing a regional community park.
-- In 2008, the University sold a 59-acre parcel of the Mellon Property to the State College Borough Water Authority for purposes of conservation, and a 75-acre parcel to Ferguson Township and the Centre Region Council of Governments for the purposes of developing a regional community park.
-- In 2007 the University sold 165.3 acres of undeveloped land in Potter Township, also part of the former Mellon Properties, to Centre Hall Borough and Gregg and Potter townships for public purposes.