Wegmans part of larger Glen Mills plan

At 140,000 sq ft -- more than triple the size of the nearby Whole Foods Market -- the new Wegmans starting to rise in the southeast corner of US 202 (Wilmington-West Chester Pike) and US 1 (Baltimore Pike) in Chadds Ford and Concord townships (Glen Mills), Delware County, will draw shoppers from Chester County and north Wilmington as well as Delco's rich western suburbs, commercial real estate broker Marshall J. Soss tells me.

Which does't sound good for the nearby Giant, ShopRite and other chain grocers; though Soss says hopefully this and other retail, office and residential development will create more shoppers for the 202 strip. Already Acme has closed Chester County stores in the area in the face of the family-owned, nonunion Wegman megastore invasion. People who like Wegmans praise the stores' vast inventories and ready-cooked meals.

Soss's KarMar Realty Group brokered the property's purchase by a group of local buyers, Chadds Ford Investors LP, from DOH Family LP (the Hinemans). Wegman's isn't the only tenant; Soss notes the vacant former Sovereign Bank branch on 202 and a small strip center adjoining will be replaced by an access road linking 202 and 1, plus 40,000 sq. ft of new stores by Peter Miller of Carlino Development, before you get to the Wegmans. 

"There are several letters of intent to go in there," but nothing complete, Soss says. The former Applied Bank office building next door is a new home to Axalta, the paint business spun off by Wilmington-based DuPont Co. Applied owner Rocco Abessinio has purchased (CORRECTED) the former Rollins building at the shirking Astra-Zeneca campus down 202 in Fairfax, Del., where JPMorgan Chase & Co. has also lately bought vacant buildings enough to house thousands of workers, potential shoppers for all those stores slowing traffic on 202.