Rendering showing a new Whole Foods supermarket and new Target store to be built in and behind the former Towamencin Village Shopping Center. (Credit: The Reporter/Image via Loopnet.com listing)
Two supervisors took the township's largest landowner to task for its delay in movement on the shopping center at Allentown and Forty Foot roads.
Redevelopment of the former Towamencin Village Shopping Center at Allentown and Forty Foot roads is slowly occurring behind the scenes, including finalizing Whole Foods and Target agreements, as owner Philadelphia Suburban Development Corporation told residents during a brief update last month at the May 22 Towamencin board of supervisors session.
Furthermore, two supervisors – Kofi Osei and Joyce Snyder – took PSDC to task for its delay in action and not keeping promises.
“Chipotle construction is still moving along, as planned,” said PSDC Vice President John Peruto Jr. during his brief update to supervisors. “We are still hoping to wrap that up by the end of this summer.”
Peruto said its engineers are working on a new redesign to avoid a pedestrian bridge proposed by supervisors to span a small retention area, in order to access and connect two parking lots at the shopping center. He said the new redesign would create “better pedestrian walkability without the pedestrian bridge.”
“I can’t talk about it yet. Our engineers are still working on that,” he said.
When it comes to plans to bring a Target behind the SKF building and a Whole Foods in the former Genuardi’s anchor location at the center, it seems engineers are very busy at PSDC.
“Our engineers are also finalizing the Target and Whole Foods plans, and we are submitting them to the township (in June),” Peruto said. “The goal is to be done the new zoning by early fall and development by next summer, and construction starting shortly thereafter.”
Peruto also updated supervisors on its “Main Street” commercial concept for the stretch of Sumneytown Pike from the turnpike entrance to Reiff Road, and its surrounding areas. PSDC, at present, owns most of the commercial properties at the intersection of Forty Foot Road and Sumneytown Pike.
Wawa is in process of redeveloping its old store and the former Lukoil on the corner into a Super Wawa convenience store, like the one at Forty Foot and Welsh roads.
“We’re still on the fast trac to update the Main Street zoning this summer. We submitted our zoning text and map amendments to the township on April 9,” Peruto said. “We received a review letter on May 3, and now we are working with lawyers and engineers to get a response back this month to the township, addressing everything in that letter.”
Read more on the proposed Main Street mixed use project here.
Supervisor Kristin Warner asked Peruto if PSDC considers “Mom and Pop” small businesses to lease space at their commercial sites.
“I’m a big fan of ‘Moms and Pops.’ Do you ever get in touch with any? Do they contact you saying they are interested in leasing one of your properties?” Warner asked.
Peruto said PSDC frequently gets calls from “Mom and Pop” businesses. However, most are cautious to invest in such a venture until the risk of low commerce disappears.
“Sometimes,” he said, “if you are starting brand new or have a location and are making a jump to a second location, that’s a big undertaking, and taking a space that may need construction dollars that is not already built out is sometimes too much of a task.”
When other retailers are filling a center, then they know there is more of a sure thing to spend those dollars and take the risk.
“We’re going to see more of the suites fill in with mom and pop users,” Peruto said.
Warner said she is requesting for that to be a priority once the bigger retailers have gone into the center.
“If you would pass that along, I just think it makes a nice community when you have them,” she said. “Most of the time, they’re local too, either to your township or to surrounding areas.”
Peruto said he did not disagree with Warner.
“I think it is nice to see that as well. I think once they know they’re not going into a shopping center that could be challenging to get people driving through, we may see a domino effect with that activity,” Peruto said.
Osei asked Peruto why PSDC President Mark Nicoletti has been absent from planning commission meetings.
“Mark Nicoletti said he’s be at all the planning commission meetings except the first one, after he came in,” Osei said. “I’m liaison to the planning commission and I haven’t seen him yet. I was wondering when we’ll see him again.”
“I will relay that message,” Peruto said.
In a separate action item on the agenda, supervisors unanimously approved a request from PSDC for a 6-month extension of an expiration date for a conditional use approval for signage. The current conditional use approval expired June 13, 2024, and the extension gives PSDC until December 13, 2024 to complete necessary documents.
PSDC is requesting to relocate and reduce the square footage of entrance signage at the shopping center on Allentown and Forty Foot roads.
“We’re still working on the package, and not exactly sure where we stand with each particular sign,” said PSDC representing attorney Ed Hughes. “But as an abundance of caution, I thought it best to request an extension so nothing falls through the cracks.”
Supervisor Snyder then gave Hughes a message for his boss.
“Please inform your client that we’re tired of granting extensions and we want to see movement,” she said.
According to a prior The Reporter article, the shopping center has been a subject of extensive discussion since the 2010s, as PSDC has promised several plans that have yet to materialize.
Per the report, a Genuardi’s supermarket at the shopping center closed in 2010 and in 2022 the developer hinted at a new grocery tenant, speculated to be Amazon Fresh, before that company cancelled all plans for similar stores nationwide.
PSDC has also pushed other projects throughout the center, including a new Planet Fitness gym that opened in summer 2021, a new Chipotle and Mattress Warehouse on a pad site that formerly housed a Boston Market that was approved in March 2022, and façade upgrades to the rest of the center. In a February update, PSDC announced their latest plan includes a Whole Foods supermarket in the former grocery part of the center, and a new Target store behind the adjacent SKF office building, with each contingent on forward process with the other, according to The Reporter.
There is also a planned age-restricted development for the site.
