bkibler@altoonamirror.com
The Altoona Planning Commission on Tuesday approved a land development plan for a new Greenbean Coffee House on the 700 block of Sixth Avenue across the avenue from the leased and currently operating facility it will replace.
Owners Katy and Travis McCabe Kavi Partnerships LLC were originally planning to construct a three-story building with the coffee house on the first floor and apartments above at the corner of Eighth Street, but now plan simply to build a one-story building for the coffee house, according to landscape architect Adam Long of Keller Engineers.
The owners obtained a special exception from the Zoning Hearing Board for off-site parking, so they could build the parking lot for the new facility across the alley between Sixth and Fifth avenues in the multiple household residential zone where the new facility will be located.
bkibler@altoonamirror.com
The Altoona Planning Commission on Tuesday conditionally approved a land development plan for a $3 million project that will enable Senior LIFE to move from rental space in the Gables building downtown to a new structure on Fairway Drive.
The commission declined to waive a requirement that the firm construct a sidewalk along the 1,000-foot property frontage, but it accepted the company’s plan for two driveway openings, despite early concerns that egress from the property could create a hazard, due its location on an S curve.
The company argued for the sidewalk waiver based on the absence of sidewalks along almost the entire length of Fairway Drive.
bkibler@altoonamirror.com
Saint Francis University will become a partner with Curry Realty in a major redevelopment project downtown, according to information presented at a meeting of the Altoona Planning Commission on Tuesday.
The university will be conducting aspects of its engineering and business programs in the first floor of the former Vipond building on the 1400 block of 11th Avenue, which Curry has been renovating for two years and which it expects to complete by August, according to Curry consultant Ron McConnell, a former local hospital executive.
The expectation is that the engineering labs and simulators in the building whose top two floors will become headquarters for the Curry companies, now based in Morrisons Cove will help generate talent for the firm, whose business includes heavy duty, off-road trucks and rail cars, according to McConnell.