“A grocery store would be perfect at that location!”
It’s a statement that Lansdale Borough residents have either heard or made dozens of times in the decade since Super Foodtown closed their doors in 2011. Discussions about having a grocery store located within the borough are as common as complaints about fireworks and “wheelie kids,” or fables about a bowling alley eventually coming to town.
But this is no fable: a grocery store is coming to town — and soon.
North Penn Now has learned that California-based Grocery Outlet — a discount grocer with locations across the west coast, along with more than a dozen in Pennsylvania — has signed a lease with Metro Commercial Properties to occupy the former Super Foodtown location at the Pavilion Shopping Center on South Broad Street.
Currently, the shopping center is undergoing a shuffling of some of their businesses, with Pets Plus moving into the former location of UFC Gym and Dollar Tree moving into the former Pets Plus location next month. Following the completion of the Dollar Tree move, construction will begin on the new grocery store location, including expanding the corner unit by knocking down the wall separating the former Dollar Tree location.
If that sounds convoluted, check out an enlarged view of the schematic here.
“Now that we’re going to have a grocery anchored shopping center, it changes the world,” said Greg Jones, senior vice president of Metro Commercial. “Our tenants are going to thrive there.”
Jones said he expects the grocery store to open sometime in early 2022. However, he noted that Grocery Outlet has expressed a desire to open by the end of the year and that possibility remains on the table at the current time. North Penn Now has reached out to Grocery Outlet for comment, and will update this article once a response has been received.
While the announcement will no doubt bring excitement to borough residents and those in the surrounding areas, the location itself has a checkered past when it comes to grocery stores.
Previous occupants include the aforementioned Super Foodtown, a New Jersey-based coop that opened at the Pavilion in May 2009 but closed only two years later, and the Vidalia Market Place, a locally owned store that ended a 14-month run at the location in August 2008, according to The Reporter.
Both of those closures happened either during or in the aftermath of the Great Recession, however. And the shopping center has undergone a series of renovations and façade improvements in the years since, in an effort to modernize the strip and attract new businesses.
The shopping center currently hosts multiple food-and-drink-based businesses including Local Tap, Manhattan Bagel and Subway, as well as other businesses including Pets Plus, Dollar Tree, Krux Fitness and Grand View Health.
The Pavilion Shopping Center is located at 401-611 South Broad Street. For more information, including leasing, contact Greg Jones at 610-260-2662 or via email at [email protected].
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