As you may remember, back in January I reported (I'll use that term loosely) about the promise of new devlopement in Harborcreek's Eastway Plaza.
On Thursday, the new retailer for the plaza was announced. Giant Eagle.
Giant Eagle announced it will be building a brand new Harborcreek store where the Eastway Plaza is located. The new Giant Eagle will be 92,000 square feet, which is about 32,000 square feet larger than its existing store that is located almost across the street.
Benderson Development Company (owner of Eastway Plaza) says it will be demolishing much of the eastern portion of the plaza (about two-thirds of the entire plaza). The company says it should have a building ready pad ready to go by October 1st, then about 35 to 36 weeks of construction. The new store should be open by next spring.
Businesses operating in the area of the plaza that could be affected by demolition -- including the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's Driver's License Center -- would likely be relocated to other areas of the plaza.
The project also calls for complete renovation of the remaining portion of the plaza's facade, along with new parking, green space, lighting, and stormwater management systems.
In addition, there will also be a 5,000 square foot outbuilding built on the lot. At this time, Benderson would not say what that building will house.
Future plans for the current Giant Eagle site are not immediately clear.
Just a few of this Harborcreek blogger's thoughts:
1) The HC Giant Eagle store just did a huge renovation to its shelves and arrangement of products that the shoppers had to deal with for months (and then learn where all the products were relocated to). Why? What was the point?
2) Does Giant Eagle moving across the street help development in Harborcreek? The township didn't bring in another business, it just shifted one.
3) What's going to happen to the old Giant Eagle plaza? Is it going to become the new dilapidated plaza of HC?
4) Are new drivers testing for their license going to ding all the shoppers' cars?
5) Will HC add at least one more light to exit the Eastway plaza? Which in turn adds another light Buffalo Road drivers have to fight.
What do you think about the move? Should we Harborcreekers be excited, indifferent, or disappointed?
(I was really hoping for a Target or a Wegman's. So I'm bummed. But maybe the new undisclosed other business that will be in the outbuilding will be Panera or Starbucks. That would be lovely.)
2 comments:
I like that they are going to do renovations of the facade and green space. that sounds awesome. don't like shifting a business and not bringing in another, but maybe something else will go where GE is now. the GE by my house is SO SMALL. sucks, but the one on 12th is nice. so huge. bigger than HC, so yeah. dumb that they did those renovations. when they did the renovations on 26th street + peninsula (the road/light), they closed down the get-go that was there for almost a year. i was PO'ed b/c it was a perfect location for me and i loved their made-to-order section. after the renovations, they reopened the get-go, but not the MTO section. weird, but i'm glad they reopened it. WHOA rambling.
ugh. i agree. target or wegmans would've been way better! and im hoping for panera!and hoping something else moves into where Giant Eagle used to be. always sad to see plazas that look empty and run down. also don't like that it will add another light possibly to buffalo - i get all the red ones, so it would definitely add to my commute time.
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