Building, Remodeling, and Demolishing Stores
Welcome back folks! Hopefully you're all settled in and ready to get back to exploring the retail of Philly's western suburbs. This photo set's got a lot of construction going on in it- some stuff going up, some stuff getting redone, and other stuff coming down. We've also got plenty of operational stores in the mix too. What an exciting time to be alive.
DNB opened as an outparcel when the center was redone in 2007. In early 2020, they were bought out by Pittsburgh's S&T Bank. Normally I don't get upset about bank mergers, but it was sad to see DNB go. DNB, originally known as Downingtown National Bank, had been a Chester County fixture since the 1860's. As of 2017, they were the 100th Oldest Bank in the country, and knowing how frequently banks merge, had probably moved up a couple spots since then.
This opened as a Gulf in the 50's, and changed hands to Sunoco at some point. Sunoco closed this location in the 90's, but the service center continued to operate independently. In 2008, it was given a thorough remodel, scrubbing most traces of Gulf from the exterior, and adding two more auto bays onto the side. I didn't catch them in this photo, but it does still have Sunoco's parking lot lights.
I can't pin down an opening date or even store number for this one, but given its size and proximity to their headquarters, I'm willing to bet it's a 60's one. They relocated to a new location across the street in 2015; this remains vacant. CORRECTION: This was store #31, which puts its opening date around 1967.
Update from the site of the Exton RadioShack. Structural work appears to be done on the Mattress Warehouse going up in its place; the two existing stores on either side are being redone to match the new facade.
From what I heard, this house wasn't owned by the same Strawbridge as the department store, but by someone else in the family. They still own it, too- it sits on the same property as the Clews & Strawbridge boat dealership. It is currently abandoned and looks like an incredible explore, but is in such a conspicuous location I'd be afraid to try.
It's been about two weeks since we last checked in at Devon's Waterloo Gardens. They've made quite a bit of progress in that time. The greenhouses are all gone, and the main building has been reduced to one wall and some framing.
Checking in on the other demolition project I've been lurking around; they've finally started ripping into the Norristown Penn Fruit's arch. Maybe I should have realized the parking lot lights in front would be out before I decided to visit at night.
This 70's Wawa coexisted with a brand-new one separated from it only by a Target for a couple years. It was apparently on Wawa's secret list of stores they want to divest but are willing to operate until someone else buys it, as it changed to a Pantry 1 (who seems to operate exclusively out of old Wawas) sometime within the 4-month period between my last visit and this.
I snapped this at my local Giant. When they remodeled the store, they tried to maximize the fairly small sales floor by cutting out a few of the service departments. If I'm remembering correctly, this was approximately where the Seafood counter would have been. Giant slapped some linoleum over the existing tile and called it good, which after a few years had started to peel. As the store is currently undergoing another remodel, I have a feeling this will be covered back up before long.
The boat dealer that had been operating here for decades recently moved down the street. I was curious what would happen to this neat old A-frame, hoping something would move in quickly. That was sadly not the case. It was torn down a few months later, and remains a vacant lot for sale. This part of Coventry is trying hard to reinvent itself as a commercial area, but it's just not happening. This is just one of the 9 lots available for development at this intersection. The others have been vacant for varying amounts of time, but a few are closing in on 25 years now. Fortunately, things are looking up a little bit. The strip mall here has filled a couple major vacancies in the past few months.
At some point in its history, the boat dealership had expanded to the former Arco station next door. This also fell victim to the wrecking ball shortly after they moved.
One of Coventry's more notable vacancies is the Changing Closets building, which was gutted by fire in 2017. The building was a neat relic from the 50's, but I doubt it has much of a shot surviving going forward. Going by the architecture, I'm guessing it was built as a diner instead of a clothing store. This area was pretty developed back in the 50's, which makes it odd to see it the way it is now. Among the other demised 50's buildings there was the area's original strip mall (replaced in 2003 by the current one), a motel (demolished in the early 2000's for a Wawa, who only uses half the site), and the Phillips 66 (abandoned since 1998, and demolished 2016). I'm really hoping to see this area rebound.
The front of the Giant's up! It wasn't until this visit I finally realized that Giant had departed from their longtime 2-tower façade. This was the first PA Giant to open with the full new front, though a 2016-opened one in Harrisburg used the new facade's gray tile over top of an existing Gander Mtn façade. Interestingly, that Harrisburg store opened the same time as Brookhaven, which was the last 2-tower front store to open.
I haven't been as diligent following this remodel as I should have considering I drive by it almost every day, but here the new stucco is all up and work has begun painting it!
Last we saw this one, the original façade had been stripped down. While the remodel itself is not quite finished yet, the new façade got put up fast!
You may remember this from the Clemens Directory I put up a couple weeks ago here, but to recap: This opened as a Shop N Bag in 1991, which Clemens bought in 1994. They must have had a 10-year least that they didn't want to renew, as this store closed prior to the rest of the chain in 2004. Marshall's moved here from where Exton's Big Lots currently is, and split the space with HomeGoods. While they have two different entrances and a partition though most of the middle of the store, they share a checkout and are, for all intents and purposes, the same store.
To fit in with all the construction here today, Peter Gabriel's got a song for us.
Hampton Inn usually doesn't do complete renovations. They just redo the roof.
ReplyDeleteThat's for the most part what they did here, the rest of the building just got a new coat of stucco.
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