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Giant Food Stores market to anchor Blatstein project at Broad and Washington in S. Philly: Report

Blatstein told the Philadelphia Business Journal that the grocery store would be built as part of a first phase of the project comprising 80,000 square feet of retail.

Developer Bart Blatstein said his long-planned apartment tower at Broad Street and Washington Avenue could get underway this year.
Developer Bart Blatstein said his long-planned apartment tower at Broad Street and Washington Avenue could get underway this year.Read moreALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer

Giant Food Stores has signed a lease for a 40,000-square-foot market as part of developer Bart Blatstein’s long-ago announced proposal for an apartment high-rise at Broad Street and Washington Avenue in South Philadelphia.

Blatstein told the Philadelphia Business Journal in an article posted online Friday that the grocery store space would be built as part of a first phase of the project comprising 80,000 square feet of retail that could get underway this year.

He said the proposal had been altered from its most recent iteration, which was to have included a 32-story tower and an outdoor shopping mall atop a city-block-sized podium of bigger stores and parking, but shared no further details.

“I’ve completely changed the project,” he told the Business Journal. “I’ve made it simpler but still big.”

Messages from The Inquirer for Giant and Blatstein were not returned Friday afternoon.

The grocer, a unit of Dutch supermarket giant Ahold Delhaize, also plans a store at PMC Property Group’s River Walk development project under construction on the Schuylkill’s eastern bank and has been opening smaller-format shops under its Heirloom brand around the city.