As plans for a new student apartment building on Pugh Street continue developing, Mad Mex is preparing to close its doors at the end of the month.

The bar and restaurant, which has called State College home for about two decades, will close on Sunday, November 28. Bill Fuller, president of Mad Mex’s parent company, Big Burrito Group, said the bar and restaurant’s lease has been suspended pending the sale of its home in the Days Inn Penn State property.

“We love State College. We’d stay there forever, and we’re looking at other locations,” Fuller told StateCollege.com. “If the sale does not go through, we will return to the spot, and we love that spot.”

Although Mad Mex’s time is up in November, both the Days Inn Penn State hotel and Brewsky’s Bottle Shop will likely continue operating until at least March 1.

The building’s sale appears to still be unfinalized. Back in August, State College-based Hospitality Asset Management Company (HAMCO), which manages the hotel, said it wasn’t always primed to be sold.

“Core Spaces approached us and asked us if we would entertain a purchase, which we said we would entertain a conversation for them to purchase the property,” HAMCO Chief Operating Officer Edward Tubbs said in August. “Any type of real estate transaction like this takes time and there’s procedures and processes that have to take place. Core will do their due diligence. That’s kind of the path that they’re on at the moment, their due diligence process. So we don’t have a timeline at this point. The hotel will continue to operate normally for the foreseeable future.”

Plans for the six-story, 172-unit apartment building that will replace Mad Mex and the Days Inn at 240 S. Pugh Street were first reported by StateCollege.com in August. According to preliminary plans, the apartment building’s construction should begin next fall and wrap up by June 2024.

The building itself won’t feature any retail spaces. Its planned amenities include a pool, hot tub, and terrace.

The apartment complex will be developed by Core Spaces, which has already acquired a handful of buildings in State College since 2019. In September, the developer began demolition work for a new 12-story residential and commercial building at the corner of East College Avenue and Hetzel Street.

The Pugh Street hotel has been affiliated with Days Inn since 1989 and previously spent decades operating as a Sheraton.

StateCollege.com editor Geoff Rushton contributed to this report.