Checking in on a Couple Projects

Happy Easter everybody! I'm sure I'm more excited about this than most of you are, but I've been looking forward to writing this post for a long time. As you will hopefully remember (but it's been long enough I don't blame you if you don't), I've been covering the redevelopment of the Springhouse Village Center for a while. I last stopped by during demolition, and now a few months have passed and the new shopping center is really taking shape. Also, more recently, I began coverage of the Logan Square Center's "redevelopment" (perhaps "demolition and subsequent abandonment" would be a better term). We'll be checking in on both of those today alongside some of the stuff I passed along the way, but before we get started I'd like to draw your attention to a couple changes I made here. 

First and foremost, on the left side of the site below the links to other blogs you'll find a link to BatteryMill's The Retail Union Discord server, which is a great community I've been a part of for about two years now. Another change you may have noticed is that I now have a custom thumbnail for the blog as opposed to the standard Blogger B. While this change won't be happening for a few weeks at least, I will begin showing a couple ads on here. This was something I was planning on doing when I first made the blog, but for whatever reason AdSense didn't process my request. A year and a half later, I realized something wasn't right and applied again. They can't review any blogs for ads right now because of the virus shutdowns, but once things go back to normal you will see two box ads in the right green margin of the page. They're unintrusive enough they shouldn't impact your viewing experience.

 Center Square Commons, Blue Bell, PA
This is a project that I have some mild regrets about not following more closely, but there's not much I could have really shown you. The construction site was fenced off and the highway it was on didn't have a sidewalk at the time. The first stores opened here in 2017, and at this point it is almost entirely filled. The original anchor was supposed to be The Fresh Market, but they pulled out due to financial difficulties leaving the space vacant until early 2018 when Aldi moved here from their Norristown location. They then opened another new store in King of Prussia, which is on the other side of Norristown, shortly afterwards. The KOP location is ironically in the former Bottom Dollar Food, which they didn't take in 2015 because it was too close to the Norristown store.

 The roadway here has an extra wide shoulder because PennDOT is planning to add an extra two lanes here. They had to rebuild the intersection once for the shopping center and they didn't want t do it a second time for the widening. Land clearing for the widening started late last year; work on the road itself should be starting up around now.

 Wawa/Dunkin Donuts, Blue Bell, PA
This store opened in the 70's when Wawa first experimented with gas stations. For the few locations they had, they didn't sell gas under their own name. Rather, they contracted another gas company to sell it at their stores. Here, it was Mobil gas at first but they were selling as Liberty in 2008, when Wawa moved down the road to a modern location. The gas station continued to operate, and ultimately replaced Wawa with Dunkin. In 2016, they stopped selling fuel in preparation for the highway widening, which will claim the land where the canopy stood. PennDOT's plans don't indicate they will be tearing down the Dunkin itself, but the store next door was recently demolished and another longtime business nearby just closed down. Neither are good signs for Dunkin.

Springhouse Village Center, Springhouse, PA
This goes without saying (and yet I'll say it anyway), but this place has changed a lot since we last saw it. Not only has demolition been completed, but the new center is structurally finished!

This building, located approximately where one of the smaller farm outbuildings was, houses Starbucks, Glam Hair Studio, and Arpeggio, which were the last three remaining businesses in the old center. This was the first building to be completed, it was supposed to open before the old center came down but between the construction people being behind schedule and the demolition people being ahead of schedule, these restaurants had to close down for about 2 months between the old center coming down and this one opening.

The ponds and retention basin were kept more or less as they were, but a trail, some fence, and a fountain was added.

CVS was the second building to be completed here. They are a new tenant entirely; they had no presence at the old center. It stands where the farmhouse used to be.

Taking a quick look inside. Despite the fancy exterior, the inside is about the same as any other CVS.

Windows along the side walls were a nice touch.

A lot of people complain about the lack of color in this decor (which is all black and white except for one red wall), but I actually like it. It's simple but doesn't look cheap or boring.

This building is where Clemens (also see the blog's cover photo) once stood. It has most of the center's inline spaces and at this point is about halfway leased.

The Medical offices building was the only structure from the original center to survive. I'm surprised they didn't give this a makeover as part of the redevelopment. Some stone facing, a metal roof, and beige paint is really all it would take to get it matching.

Some more inline spaces attached to the Whole Foods building. The one on the right is now a Chase Bank, and the one on the left is an AT&T store; there are still a couple vacancies in the middle.

The Whole Foods itself. We'll be taking a look at the store this is replacing shortly.

While the structure is complete on the inline building, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done.

Back in what was originally the far corner of Clemens' parking lot, a smaller building was taking shape. This is now a realtor's office.

Fresh Fields/Whole Foods/Aldi, North Wales, PA
This store opened in 1996 as a Fresh Fields, around the time Whole Foods acquired the company. In 2002, Whole Foods phased out the Fresh Fields name in favor of their own. After Whole Foods moved to Springhouse in late 2017, this space did not sit vacant for long. Aldi moved in less than a year later. This shopping center had a minor facade renovation around that time too, which mainly consisted of replacing the roof and repainting the front.

Inside, we've got a different decor than I've seen at the other FF's-turned-WF's. Like with that other decor, I'm not sure if this store was redone by Whole Foods or if this is what it was built with. Regardless, I believe this store and the Devon one we saw a few days back started out with the same decor. It has the same flooring and lighting, and general layout as Devon.

I am by no means an expert in Whole Foods decor but if I were to guess, I'd say this decor is probably older than the one Devon has, meaning if this is the original decor Devon would have opened with it too.

Older Whole Foods stores, or at least ones that began life as a Fresh Fields, were fairly small stores-think Aldi-sized. This view shows about 2/3 of the depth of the store. Their modern stores still aren't exactly massive, but they're at least close in size to a modern ACME or 2000's Giant.

Whole Foods stores tend to have a weird layout compared to other stores. Produce is on the right side of the store, the cheese counter is behind it, meats in the middle of the back wall, prepared foods and the rest of the service departments on the left. The fact that these former Fresh Fields stores have the exact same layout indicates either one of two things- either Whole Foods totally remodeled these stores, or they liked Fresh Fields' layout enough to use it in their own purpose-built stores.

A modern Whole Foods has this exact same layout, but on a much larger scale.

AMC 309 Cinemas, North Wales, PA
Sorry about the picture quality for both this photo and the next. They're the only pre-remodel ones I have for either building. This theater (famous for their roadside sign) opened in 1968 as a single screen theater. It was then expanded 4 times throughout the 70's and 80's. In 2017, they started a major expansion and remodel that totally changed the building's exterior. It lost its original rear sign, but thankfully retained the neon roadside one. Lost sign aside, I think the remodel was a huge improvement.

Wawa, Blue Bell, PA
Wawa opened this location in 2008, replacing the one seen towards the beginning of this post. Up until its remodel in 2018, it was one of very few post-1996 Wawas to not have received LED parking lot lights. Wawa was an early adopter of LED's; in 2011 they upgraded the parking lot and canopy lights of basically every modern location. A few, like this, somehow still slipped through the cracks. Older-model stores didn't get them at first, but as they remodel they have been upgrading.

Wendy's, Norristown, PA
This location was built in 2012 on the site of an old Shell station and an existing 70's Wendy's. This is a time period I like to call the Dark Ages of Wendy's design, it was after they had ditched the old copper-roof model but before they started their current design. Basically every store built or redone in this period looks different because they just couldn't settle on a design. A lot of them have since been remodeled again, and this one is no exception. Surprisingly, they didn't change the exterior of this one during the remodel aside from putting up the new logo on the side facing Rt 202. The side facing Sears still has the old logo.

Sears Hardware/Outlet, Norristown, PA
This building was most likely something else originally; the building dates back to the 70's. It could possibly have been a Hechinger or something along those lines, as it has always had a garden center. Sears moved in sometime between 1999 and 2002. There was a Kmart across the street that became a Sears Essentials and then Sears Outlet. When Hometown was spun off, the outlet was consolidated into the hardware store. In 2018, Sears Hardware dissolved completely and it just became an outlet, which then closed at the end of 2019.

Logan Square Shopping Center, Norristown, PA
I figured it was time to check in on what's going on here. So far, it looks like they're doing pre-demolition work like salvage and remediation of any hazardous materials. After demolition, this sat for a couple years as an overgrown lot. The center's website hasn't been updated in years, and there hasn't been any news posted about this, but I drove by here again in December and it looks like work has finally started up again on the site. They're planning a new Rite Aid, a Royal Farms, and one other new store here.

This part went along the side of the Penn Fruit building. It was retail along the bottom, and offices on the second floor.

You can't see very much through the windows here, but this is the best view I could get into the second floor.

Restaurant space on the corner, which judging by the roof I would assume was a Chinese restaurant at one point in time. The limestone paneling this has makes me think it was something more upscale originally.

Most of the windows were papered over, but there were a couple that weren't covered. This was most recently Hair Shack, which appears to have been closed for years.

The name is still displayed on the door.

The adjacent storefront. I wasn't as fortunate enough to find the name of this one. I'm thinking it was a restaurant. I love the semi-recessed lights in here, they're definitely original to the building.

That store also had a bump out window that got broken at some point. This center was neglected for a long time before they finally pulled the plug and demolished it.

The stairs to the offices. Either the doors were removed for demolition or somebody broke in. Neither scenario would surprise me.

I caught this in the vestibule on the other side of the old Penn Fruit the fist time I visited here. Somehow I missed this one that was out in the open. Either a vestibule was removed from this side, or one was added on the other. I'm assuming the latter. I really wish there was a way I could have saved this

Along the front of the store, all the fluorescent lights were removed. I think it's a requirement before demolition because some chemicals in the ballast can escape during demolition if they aren't removed beforehand.

Inside, the mercury vapor lights have been removed as well. Given that mercury's in the name I would assume this was also considered a hazardous material; however I've seen them left up at other demolition sites even when the fluorescents have been removed; so maybe these were salvaged instead.

The drop ceiling here had already been picked apart on my last visit.

Oh my God! They killed Kenny's! Those Bastards!
Kenny's Shoe Service was one of the final holdouts in this building. It was still open here a month before my visit. They finally relocated to a space in the former Sears building behind here.

Looking inside the old Kenny's space. It's been cleared out pretty well.

I think Rep. Bradford's office was the very last place here to vacate, since it was the only one that hadn't been pulled apart yet.

Looking inside, it would seem they have only just started work.

Sign-A-Rama was another one of the final holdouts. Alongside Kenny's, they also moved elsewhere in the center. The carpet has been pulled up, revealing the original 50's flooring.

Penn Fruit's old loading dock in back of the store. While stone was fading out of the picture as a common building material at the time, this center's old enough it's not terribly strange to see a stone retaining wall.

Back to the storefront we started at, I found a place where the paper over the windows has peeled back enough to see inside.

Since this post falls so close to Easter, I'll throw in a little Christian Rock today. And by that I mean the one song that literally everybody already knows because it's a good song and I'm feeling basic today. I promise I've got other songs on my gospel playlist.