A new “Super” Wawa convenience store with gas was approved for Pennsville’s Cranberry Plaza, to be located at the front left side of the shopping center’s parking lot along South Broadway.
The proposal was approved at the March 25th Pennsville Planning and Zoning Board meeting. While i was unable to attend, I did verify the approval with Pennsville Township, afterwards.
The plans called for a 5,915 square foot Wawa retail food market and gas fueling operations, consisting of 6 dispensers with 12 fueling positions.
Wawa has been on an aggressive expansion the last few years in South Jersey, and after building considerably in Camden, Burlington and Gloucester Counties they are now focusing on more rural areas. We recently covered an update on current construction in Penns Grove and Logan. A new Wawa was also approved this year for Upper Pittsgrove.
For the Cranberry Plaza project, to better describe the shopping center it has a main building along the rear of the property, which on the right side is home to Save-A-Lot, PV Pets and Taps & Bottle. An all new Autozone was developed at the front right-side of the parking lot.
The Wawa will be developed at the front of the shopping center on the left side. This pad property has been marketed as available for several years.
A classic Wawa is located less than 1000 feet away at the Carroll Ave. intersection. While not specifically called out in the planning notice, I have no problem writing that we should expect that older classic Wawa store to close when the new super Wawa opens… an undetermined timeframe.
For the newly approved Wawa, a site plan dated September 2022 is available online at the Paramount Realty website, although this may not be the final approved plan.
That depiction shows the Wawa will not have direct access to South Broadway, and customers will have to drive in through the main entrance of the shopping center (traffic light), and turn left a short distance in the parking lot to then access Wawa.
The shopping center also has access from Dunn Lane on the north side the parking lot.
It is expected that the Wawa store will face South Broadway and the gas station pumps would be developed to the side of the store, with the gas pumps closest to the main entrance driveway and the retail store to the far left.
The shopping center was sold in 2019 to unnamed investors. The prior owners had been advertising plans for a full shopping center remodel. While that status is unknown you would think that with AutoZone and Wawa now as tenants the main shopping center building will attract more interest from retailers… and hopefully a remodel is planned.
A commercial real estate listing at MSC shows that they are actively looking for tenants for the remaining shopping center spaces, particularly the larger left side portion of the center.
A Courier-Post classified ad in 1980 called the shopping center “the new Ames Plaza” which at the time was home to an Ames department store, an A&P supermarket, pizza shop and a shoe store.
An article in NJ Biz from 2005 shows that Ames closed all of their New Jersey stores including Pennsville at that time. In the interim the Ames space was used as a flea market and other uses.
Links and Locations
Super Wawa Pennsville (Approved – To Be Developed)
Cranberry Plaza
233 S Broadway
Pennsville NJ