History

Our History

The College Township Industrial Development Authority received its Certificate of Incorporation from the Department of State of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on October 14, 1972. This incorporation was based upon the provisions of the Industrial development Authority Law, approved August 23, 1967 (Act No. 102)

The Certificate of Incorporation states under Item (e).  The term of existence of the Authority shall be not more than 50 years. Thus the certificate implies the Authority should exist to 2012, assuming it continues to be meeting the objectives of its charter.

The Authority has had its term of existence extended by College Township Council for an additional number of years to expire the year of 2054.

The purpose of the Authority is to provide a means of financial support through low cost loans to promising entrepreneurs. Budding and established entrepreneurs who make application for this financial support have been obligated to submit a business plan in order to gain endorsement from the Authority. It was a matter of only a few years until the College Township IDA obtained the image of being the Authority to go to if you wanted positive action.

The CTIDA received the vast majority of applications from the Centre Region. More than 175 firms were approved by CTIDA resulting in investments of more than $121,000,000. Notable amounts of new employment have resulted and this investment has sustained much employment that otherwise would have been lost.

The law permits Authorities to charge a fee for their services of up to 1% of the negotiated loan. This fee has resulted in substantial income for the Authority. In the early years, this income was returned to the Township and Centre Region by providing some rent for the use of the Township building, paying a portion of the costs for installation of needed traffic lights, expansion of the University Airport and other worthwhile projects to improve the business climate and standard of living in the Region.

In 1989, the College Township IDA provided a $200,000 loan to the IDC, Industrial Development Corporation, for the construction of their building at Penn States new Industrial Park in College Township. This was to house the small business incubator program as well as the newly formed CBICC, Chamber of Business and Industry in Centre County. There is some question as to whether the IDC would have been able to go ahead with the Incubator construction at that time had it not been for the financial support of CTIDA.

Then in 1992, it was learned that Centre Engineering Company located in College Township was experiencing severe financial difficulty. After negotiations with Centre Engineering it was agreed that In December of 1992, the CTIDA would purchase the facility. At that time, the following companies were housed in this complex: Centre Engineering, Maxtech, Broadband Networks, Blatak and TRS Ceramics. We continued to run the facility as an Industrial and Technical incubator, as a next step up form the IDC starter program.

In 2007 the CTIDA sold the building to Channel Communications, which is the new home of WHVL-TV, and has now started a program for small business guarantee pledge funds. We are in our early stages and look forward to using our capital from the sale of the building to continue to grow business and industry as well as add to employment in College Township, the Centre Region, and Centre County.