JDH Capital : News
Food Lion to anchor new shopping Center in Sinking Spring
15 Oct 2009
A shopping center planned for Sinking Spring will be anchored a Food Lion supermarket.
Work on the Local Shops at Sinking Spring at Penn Avenue and Shillington Road is expected to start in about 90 days, according to the developer, JDH Capital of Charlotte, N.C.
"We are very excited in being part of the Sinking Spring community," said Susan Bourgeois, development partner at JDH.
Bourgeois said the first phase will include the Food Lion and four other retail spaces for businesses such as restaurants, dry cleaners, a florist or a salon.
The other tenants have not been announced.
The second phase would add two more buildings. The developer hasn't submitted plans for them yet.
Food Lion spokeswoman Christy M. Phillips-Brown said the supermarket will be a full-service store with a deli, a bakery and fresh produce and meat sections.
It will have between 30 and 40 full- and part-time employees.
Food Lion is based in North Carolina.
Bourgeois said the shopping center could open by summer if winter weather doesn't force any lengthy construction delays.
To make way for the shopping center, buildings that housed Boscov's and a commercial recreation center for children must be razed.
In a related move, the borough plans to buy a property on the east side of the shopping center so it can widen Queen Street and install a traffic signal where the street intersects Penn Avenue.
The shopping center and the road improvements are part of a borough revitalization plan that includes building a Penn Avenue bypass between Shillington Road and Columbia Avenue, realigning intersections and widening Penn Avenue and its sidewalks.
Several Sinking Spring council members said they were looking forward to the shopping center opening.
"I think it will be an improvement," Councilwoman Barbara Kutz said.
Councilman Lawrence S. Schmidt agreed.
"Hopefully, the revitalization program will keep the people shopping in the borough," he said.
Contact Erin Negley: 610-371-5047 or enegley@readingeagle.com.
