The grocery void left in many Towamencin Township and Lansdale Borough shoppers’ lives by the closure of Acme Market could be filled this calendar year when Lidl comes to town. And the void of a vacant 61,000-square-foot store at 1150 Welsh Road made it that more attractive to the German-based discount grocer.
Towamencin Township Supervisors approved 4-0 a waiver of land development for Lidl US LLC during their Wednesday night meeting, bringing a new grocery store that much closer to fruition. Lidl became the legal owner of the 6.5-acre property last week.
“I’d like to thank you,” Supervisor Laura Smith said, “because with the other grocery store being gone, it left a hole in the community, not only our community, but the Borough of Lansdale. It’s been a big impact. Having you go there versus storage units is important. it has great purpose for us and the community and I appreciate you giving Towamencin a second chance.”
Lidl proposes to divide the former Acme site into two tenant spaces, and will occupy the 29,363-square-foot portion closest to Oak Boulevard. There are 307 parking spaces on the site. There is no tenant for the second half of the property at this time.
Lidl will remove 29 parking spaces from behind the store and replace it with greenspace, in order to compensate for increased impervious coverage from construction of a small concrete loading dock behind its half of the building.
“Lidl is very excited about this project,” said representing attorney Howard Brown, “and is excited about being in Towamencin Township.”
Sam Kachidza, senior real estate manager for Lidl US, said the Towamencin site is one of eight Lidl grocery stores that will open in Pennsylvania. The first Pennsylvania Lidl store opened Dec. 5, 2017, in Folsom. There are 62 stores that have opened in the United States since Summer 2017. Lidl also operates 10,000 stores in 28 countries in Europe and employs more than 215,000 people.
He said Lidl’s biggest store is around 36,000 square feet, whereas an average U.S. grocer is around 55,000 to 60,000 square feet.
Kachidza said Lidl offers the highest-quality products at lowest possible prices.
“We are a limited assortment grocer, which means we have a lot less product than a typical U.S. grocer – about 2,000 products,” he said.
Most of that product, he said, is private label, which allows Lidl to sell at a very competitive price.
“Often, there is a misconception that private label means poor quality; I can assure you that is not the case with us. We have award-winning wines, award-winning cheeses, and award-winning products across the gamut that we offer in our stores,” Kachidza said. “One of the learnings here in the U.S. is limited assortment is a bit too limited. So, in reaction to that, we actually doubled our product offering, from 2,000 to 4,000 products.”
The reason Towamencin was so attractive to Lidl to open business is location.
“It’s close to homes and we want to be as close to homes as possible. In terms of Towamencin Township specifically, we like this market because of its demographics,” he said. “There are great incomes and types of densities we look into and compares well to our other stores.”
Tractor trailers and other deliveries will access the property from Oak Boulevard, pull into the rear, unload, and then leave via a driveway on the side of the building that exits onto Welsh Road, according to project engineer Cornelius Brown of Bohler Engineers. All entrances and exits will remain. Lidl will also improve landscaping on the site by planting more trees and shrubs along the perimeter and Welsh Road frontage, Brown said.
Township Engineer Tom Zarko said the 29 spaces that are being removed were previously required to support the use of the building.
“If Lidl is occupying a portion of the building, it is not an issue. If they want to do anything with the other portion, they have to come in, make an application, review it and make sure they meet and satisfy parking requirements,” Zarko said.
Supervisor Rich Marino asked if Lidl would be hiring locally, and Kachidza said it would be doing that.
“I hate to commit, but at a minimum, [Lidl would hire] 30 employees,” Kachidza said. “It’s driven by the market. Obviously, higher-volume neighborhoods need more employees.”
A member of the public asked how Lidl compared to competitor Aldi, which is poised to open up the street at Ralph’s Corner in Hatfield Township at the former Clemens location.
Kachidza said that, in Germany, there is very little that distinguishes the two brands, as both are very similar in size. He said the U.S. Lidl prototypes are slightly bigger, as Aldi’s are usually between 16,000 and 20,000 square feet.
After the vote, Smith said there was a passion to bring a grocer back to the Acme location. Kachidza said Lidl jumped at the opportunity.
“We wanted to be in this market. It allows us to come in a lot quicker with an existing building,” he said.
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