Substantial construction work is beginning this month on a new Giant grocery store in Hills Plaza.
Property owner Vita & Vita Realty wrote at PA Business Central that a grand opening is expected in early 2019.
Giant submitted plans to College Township in September 2017 for a 68,400-square foot store at at 2121 S. Atherton St., the long-vacant anchor spot in Hills Plaza. The space has been empty for 16 years since Ames closed in 2002 as the department store chain entered corporate bankruptcy. Ames had been in the space since 1999, when the company took over the former Hills Department Store.
According to Vita & Vita, the space is actually 80,000 square feet and is being divided into two stores and receiving areas. A tenant for the second, 11,600-square-foot space, has not been announced.
A Giant representative said last year that the company will close its store at 2222 E. College Ave. when the new store opens. Giant also has a location in Northland Center on North Atherton Street, which is expected to remain open.
The new store at Hills Plaza also will include a 400-square-foot Starbucks coffee shop. Exterior improvements will include a new mansard roof, store fronts, loading docks, parking lot, landscaping and energy efficient lighting.
The 46-year-old Hills Plaza already includes one grocery store. Weis Markets is located in the anchor spot of the South Hills portion of the plaza, south of Rolling Ridge Drive.
Another grocery store once resided in the Hills Plaza. The current Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, next to where the new Giant will be, was a Bi-Lo supermarket until the late 1990s.
