Shaner opens a TownePlace Suites in Happy Valley
Shaner Hotels opened the TownePlace Suites by Marriott State College and posted the news on the company blog on 25 September 2026. The hotel stands at 118 Donald Drive in State College, Pennsylvania. The post congratulates the team that ran the opening.
The property is new. The post calls it a brand-new hotel in Happy Valley and reports a completed opening. No news outlet has covered it yet. The operator's own account is the record.
What the fit-out carries
TownePlace Suites is Marriott's extended-stay brand, and the fit-out answers a guest who stays for a week or a month. The post lists fully equipped kitchens, flexible workspaces and Smart TVs in the suites. Breakfast is complimentary and hot.
The post names the wider amenity block. A fitness centre carries cardio and weight-training equipment. A business centre, on-site laundry, a convenience store, complimentary Wi-Fi and complimentary parking round out the practical list. Guests can cook on a Weber grill on the outdoor patio. An interactive TowneMap in the lobby points to local restaurants and attractions. The hotel welcomes pets and runs a complimentary shuttle to State College Regional Airport.
Penn State weekends and the trips around them
The post ties the address to the university. It names visitors attending football games, graduation celebrations and events at the Bryce Jordan Center, plus other university activities. It names Toftrees Golf Course and downtown State College nearby.
The extended-stay inventory meets two calendars. A football weekend draws a short stay. A graduation, a move-in or a semester-long assignment draws a longer one, and the kitchen and the laundry set carry that.
The team that ran the opening
Felicia Crane led the opening as general manager. Michael Wind served as assistant general manager. Mimi Driscoll is area director of sales. Christa Williams is sales manager. Jazmine Greene is executive housekeeper.
The post thanks seven people from other Shaner properties and from the corporate team by name. They are Natalie Knoffsinger, Monica Corman, Nikki Wagenseller, Joseph Marlatt, Sue Winn, Garrett Musselman and Travis Young.
Crane and Driscoll appear in other Shaner records for the State College market. The three remaining names and titles rest on the post.
Ahead of the window the operator published
Shaner announced the project in August 2025. That release gave a fourth-quarter 2026 opening and a 13 to 15 month construction window. Local coverage repeated the fourth-quarter 2026 line.
The hotel opened before that window. The 25 September post is the point at which the operator reported the property trading.
The room count the record does not settle
The opening post states no room count at all. The operator's August 2025 release gave 89 rooms, and local reports repeated that figure. PennTerra Engineering publishes 96 rooms and 112 parking stalls for the final land development plan it describes. That plan was approved in late May 2024. A third project database lists 90 rooms.
The operator's own figure is 89. The approved plan describes 96. The post settles neither.
The address and the road that carries it
The published address is 118 Donald Drive, State College, Pennsylvania 16803, with the telephone number +1 814-826-6100.
Donald Drive is the access road built for the project. PennTerra Engineering's page for the Decibel Partners hotel describes the work as Phase 2C of the Nittany Valley Sports Centre master plan. Donald Drive connects the site to Bernel Road, and a right-in and right-out connects it to Fox Hill Road. That places the hotel at the Fox Hill Road and Bernel Road corner in Patton Township, inside the township's Planned Airport District.
State College Regional Airport and its shuttle
The post puts the hotel 1.6 miles from State College Regional Airport. That is a free-flow driving measure. The road route from the site corner to the airport terminal runs about 1.5 miles free-flow, and the straight line is about 1.4 miles. Traffic lengthens the drive.
The airport took its current name on 3 November 2023. It was University Park Airport before that. Penn State owns it, the Centre County Airport Authority runs the terminal and the parking, and the SCE city code has been in use since commercial service began in 1978. The two names refer to one airport.
The property's own booking page confirms the complimentary airport shuttle. The post confirms it too.
The daytime block this property can sell
An extended-stay fit-out carries the inventory a day-use buyer wants: an in-suite kitchen, a workspace, a laundry on site and a hot breakfast. A hotel 1.6 miles from State College Regional Airport can sell a daytime room to a traveller between flights, and a property on a university calendar can sell a work block to a visitor between appointments.
The opening post publishes no day rate, no minimum stay and no block policy. A day-use programme on this property starts from the fit-out and the shuttle, and the rate card stays private.
What the opening post does not publish
The post gives no opening-day date, no room rate, no development cost and no ownership split. It names no developer. Trading rests on the post, on the property's own bookable page and on the property site's amenity block. No guest-review record is public yet.
The hotel adds extended-stay inventory to the State College market. A guest booking a long stay can check the kitchen, the laundry and the airport shuttle on the property's own page.