Developer pitches Harbor Freight, Chase Bank for long-vacant Towamencin shopping center

 A developer is back with more promises of big names that could help revive a Towamencin shopping center, as township officials keep asking when those promises will turn into destinations.

Developer Mark Nicoletti gave an update Aug. 28 on plans to revive the ‘Town Square’ shopping center at Forty Foot and Allentown Roads.

“You’re going to start to see me even more now because, in September, we’re going to be moving through the technical process of getting our zoning for the shopping center project, where Whole Foods is going,” he said.

Located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Forty Foot and Allentown roads, the former Towamencin Village Shopping Center has been a topic of lengthy discussion since the early 2010s, as longtime businesses there have closed and the developer has promised several plans that failed to materialize. A Genuardi’s supermarket at the shopping center closed in 2010 and in 2022 the developer hinted at a new grocery tenant, heavily speculated to be Amazon Fresh, before that company canceled all plans for similar stores nationwide.

Developer Nicoletti and his firm PSDC have also pushed other projects in and around 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 February Nicoletti named Whole Foods as a possible tenant of the grocery space, and Target as a possible addition behind the current center. Work has already begun on a combined Chipotle and Mattress Warehouse building on a pad site in front of the center, the developer told the board on Aug. 28, before he dropped several more names as possible new tenants.

“There’s another piece of the puzzle, that’s falling into place nicely. In the corner of the shopping center, we have a tenant named Harbor Freight coming in: it’s a great tool and supply business,” he said, before comparing them to nearby competitors.

“Lowe’s is great, Home Depot is great. Harbor Freight differentiates significantly from them because they try to build an individual relationship, ‘We’re your local hardware store,’ which we haven’t had for a while,” he said.

Are there other possible tenants in the works? One that sends a clear message, the developer told the board.

“We are very close to making a deal with Chase Bank. Why does that matter, versus any bank? Well, it happens to be the biggest bank in the world. And they don’t go everywhere,” he said.

“When they go to a community, it’s kind of like a gold ribbon that says ‘This is a really strong community.’ That’s a big deal. I’m going to be bragging about that, as I try to get other retailers, and say ‘Why wouldn’t you consider Towamencin when J.P. Morgan Chase is here?” Nicoletti said.

One other possibility for the shopping center: First Watch, a Florida-based restaurant chain that currently has a branch located off of Route 309 in Montgomery Township: “This is going to become one of your favorite options,” the developer said. As for Target and Whole Foods, the two are still dependent on each other, with one fully signed on but not the other.

“We had a signed lease with Amazon Fresh a couple of years ago, and we started the renovation of the center — as you see parts of it are already renovated — based on that. Out of nowhere, Amazon pulls the plug on the whole division and shuts down their plans to open up a lot of stores. We were left hanging,” he said.

“We were one of the few developers that didn’t fight that. And it benefited us, because their Whole Foods division took a look at the same opportunity, and we signed a lease with Whole Foods,” Nicoletti said.

That lease with Whole Foods is “based on Target coming,” and the developer is “still working through the deal on Target. We’re not done yet, but they wouldn’t be taking us this far along if we didn’t have confidence they wanted to do something there,” he added.

Resident Gisela Koch asked if the developer had considered adding any restaurants to the shopping center, and the developer said he had plans in the works for at least one restaurant at his proposed “Main Street” development farther south on Forty Foot near Sumneytown Pike. Koch then said she was worried about the two anchors being contingent on each other: “so Whole Foods is not a done deal yet, because Target is not a done deal?”

“That’s correct. But we do have a signed lease with Whole Foods. That is a big deal, to get that far, to them committing to want to go to this project,” he said, vowing the developer is “doing everything we can to make a deal with Target.”

“It would be great if it all happens in our lifetime,” Koch answered, drawing laughs from the crowd and a “Good point” from the developer, before others suggested they’d like to see new restaurants and a deli there too.

After a similar update on the ‘Main Street’ project from the developer, supervisor Joyce Snyder said she had heard plenty of promises from the developer, but seen little come from them, so far.

“I have watched you come before this board since 2017. I will grant you that Covid was a problem. But Covid’s been over for a while, and there has not been movement,” Snyder said.

“You bought that shopping center in 2015, and you haven’t done anything with it since then. So please forgive my skepticism, but I’ll see it, and I’ll believe it, when I walk in the doors of whatever it is you’re promising you’re going to build,” she said.

Nicoletti countered that the pandemic, recent skyrocketing interest rates, and shifting market conditions have also contributed to the slow progress, and pointed out the opening of Planet Fitness, façade upgrades through most of the center, and new landscaping recently installed.

“I’ve already spent millions of dollars to get us this far, at that project. I’m very frustrated, but here we are. We’re this close. So let’s stick together because we’re that close. Let’s get the zoning done, let’s get them in, and let’s cut some ribbons,” he said.

Supervisor Kofi Osei said he understood the skepticism from residents: “I hope you understand why people are upset. These are very lofty things you’re saying. The community has been disappointed” with the lack of movement: “Even if you’re working on it, tone down the promises a little bit until we’re a little farther in the process.”

Supervisor Laura Smith said she was glad to see “some really lovely landscaping coming in,” and said she thought that was “a sign of things moving forward.”

    An empty shell of a building stands next to new facades on vacant storefronts in the former Towamencin Village Shopping Center, as seen on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024.
 By Dan Sokil | The Reporter   

Resident Christian Fusco then asked if and when the developer would finish the façade of the grocery space, so the fourth side of that building is enclosed and “not a giant hole, where I can see to the back of the structure,” saying he thought it looked like “a weird, dystopian film set, where the world ended, and some group of survivors is living where the three-walled supermarket is … I assume they ate all the food, though.”

Nicoletti answered that those façades are chosen by the tenant, and can’t be installed until those deals are done.

“The supermarket that anchors the center, they get to pick what they want it to look like, and so we have to wait for that piece. I would start on that tomorrow. It’s an obvious question, that’s the answer,” Nicoletti said.

The Towamencin supervisors’ next meet at 7 p.m. on Sept. 11 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.

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