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Wawa Submits Plans for First Centre County Location

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Wawa plans to build its first Centre County location near the intersection of Benner Pike and Eagle Point in Benner Township. Photo by Geoff Rushton | StateCollege.com

Geoff Rushton

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Centre County’s first Wawa is inching closer to reality as the convenience store chain recently submitted a formal land development plan for a location along Benner Pike near Bellefonte.

A Wawa spokesperson confirmed in December that the Delaware County-based company is looking to open multiple stores in the State College area, and in March Benner Township officials said the business had begun pre-submission conferences for a location on Benner Pike. A Centre County location would mark the westernmost expansion in Pennsylvania to date for Wawa, which currently operates nearly 1,000 stores in six states.

At Tuesday’s Centre County Board of Commissioners meeting, Christopher Schnure, county land development and subdivision planner, presented an overview of the final land development plan, which he said was submitted in the last few weeks.

The store will be located near the intersection of Benner Pike and Eagle Point in Benner Township, directly across from Pennsylvania-based convenience store rival Sheetz.

Plans drafted by PennTerra Engineering show a 6,600 square foot store with 16 gas pumps on eight fueling station islands.

Primary access will be from Eagle Point, with a right-out exit also proposed directly onto Benner Pike. An access easement also is planned through the neighboring Dunkin’ property. Schnure said a traffic impact study has been submitted to the Benner Township engineer and PennDOT.

The nearly 22-acre property will be subdivided, with the Wawa sitting on 1.893 acres and the remaining 19.893 acres for stormwater management and overflow parking for Stuckey Ford Bellefonte, which is located across the street.

The commissioners unanimously agreed to place on the consent agenda for approval at next week’s board meeting a memorandum of understanding among the county, township and Wawa on next week’s consent agenda. The memorandum does not represent an approval of the plan, but rather is an agreement for the developer to reimburse Benner Township for the costs associated with processing, reviewing, inspecting and approving the engineering aspects of the plan.

Plans still need to go before the Centre County Planning Commission and also will require zoning, stormwater and traffic engineering approvals from Benner Township.

The site of Wawa’s planned Benner Township location is directly across the street from Sheetz on Benner Pike. Photo by Geoff Rushton | StateCollege.com

Wawa has not indicated a timeline for completion, according to Schnure.

“As with any developer, the sooner the better,” he said.

In addition to Sheetz and the proposed Wawa, that area of Benner Pike has also seen the addition of a Rutter’s gas station and convenience store and a gas station at the Giant supermarket that opened in December as the anchor tenant of the Paradise Shopping Center.

“In just a couple years we’ve gone from one gas station on the Benner Pike to four,” Board of Commissioners Chair Mark Higgins said. “Quite a lot of — progress might not be the right term for it — quite a lot of motion, shall we say, in greater Bellefonte at this point. A lot more businesses, a lot more activity.”

Gas stations aren’t the only new developments in the area. McDonald’s is planning to build a restaurant in the Paradise Shopping Center near the corner of Benner Pike and Paradise Road. Two hotels are in the works, and planning continues to move forward for a massive “fulfillment center warehouse” for a yet-to-be named business on Penn Tech Drive in the Benner Commerce Park.