A Burger King restaurant is planned for the 5-Points intersection (Egg Harbor Road) in Washington Township, to be located next to the delayed and still to be developed new Super Wawa. They will be appearing before the Washington Township Planning Board on September 7th at 6pm.
Based on an earlier approval for the Wawa, we believe the Burger King will be developed on the corner of the brand new traffic signal intersection of the realigned Blackwood-Barnsboro Rd and Egg Harbor Rd. Basically, directly across from the older classic former Wawa building.
A somewhat recently remodeled McDonald’s is a few hundred feet away.
“Five Points” is a name used for many locations, so to be specific… It’s where Routes 47, 41, Egg Harbor Rd and Blackwood-Barnsboro Road meet. Think; Seven Star Diner, McDonald’s, and close by is the Village Pub.
This “fast food restaurant” was previously approved in November 2019, along with the still-to-be-developed Wawa. At the time the approval did not specify the restaurant. We had heard from a few 42Freeway fans that it was going to be a Burger King, but we couldn’t find any corroborating evidence.. until now.
With the fast food restaurant already approved, this Planning Board approval is asking for some minor variances mainly around signage (which is almost always the case).
Being all new construction, expect this Burger King to look like no other BK you’ve seen before! Based on square footage we found other matching Burger Kings (Indiana). It seems all new fast food restaurants today have that similar blocky and taller design, and we expect this new Washington Township location to be the same.
Meeting details at the bottom of this post. Read on for more 5-Pts project updates.
Wawa 5 Points
I don’t know. I don’t know why the long delay for the new Wawa for 5 Points is well… long delayed.
In an April 30, 2021 update I wrote at 42Freeway… in summary, the project has all the approvals from Washington Township, but it seems that there is still design work happening regarding how the Wawa (and presumably this Burger King) connect to the County Roads.
I went as far as to “Pull an OPRA request” which is when the public asks to see Government documents… and from what I read it was a repeated series of the County asking for a clear plan for roadwork to take place in the county right of way, the developer submitted a few things, and the County replies back with the list again.
So at least of the time of my writing in April, all of the details for the County had not been cleared up.
I spoke to a representative from Washington Township’s own JPC Group, who called me back and gave a very polite explanation that while JPC is listed on planning documents as the project developer, they really only did the initial site preparation and the Blackwood-Barnsboro realignment. The Wawa development and other approvals were all in the hands of one of Wawa’s preferred building developers.
Which led me to Ferber Development. The folks at Ferber were nice enough to respond to my email, but gave a very generic answer “Our team is currently working on securing all remaining approvals for this site.“
In their defense… I’ve sat in the Deptford Planning Board meetings for two proposed large warehouses, which will have a traffic impact on the 5 points intersection… and I have to believe that the County and State are looking for changes in the intersection to support both projects… well, all of the immediate projects. And that just takes time.
So I tried. I really tried.
- OPRA request for documents with the County (A written form procedure)
- Spoke to JPC Group, who did the site prep work
- Found the key contacts of building developer Ferber, and exchanged emails.
There just comes a time when I can only do so much! Imagine if you got approval to build a swimming pool at your house and months later a stranger knocked on your door asking why you haven’t started building yet? What would you tell them? 🙂
Larger Project Planned for the Future
The JPC family of companies owns (owned?) the properties for the new Wawa and Burger King…well the own the large County Conservation mulch property, which then leads into the JPC property.
According to documents at Arrow Commercial real estate, there are much bigger plans for this property… but only the Wawa and Burger King have made it to formal planning board presentation.
Phase II – Commercial
Way back in 2018 when we broke the news on the new Wawa and restaurant, we mentioned that there is was a proposed phase II… which was commercial development continuing along Egg Harbor Road. (Basically, across from the Water Tower)
To be clear.. nothing has been presented for Phase II. This is just the developer trying to attract tenants
But commercial real estate company Arrow is promoting the project and in their renderings show 8 buildings, with a mix of retail and office. I think the depictions are just ideas… with no businesses signed on. But the drawing does indicate that if Phase II progresses, ANOTHER traffic light would be added on Egg Harbor Road at the entrance to the existing office park that surround the water tower.
Phase III – Residential
The Arrow documents (pdf) also show that in the larger County Conservation property behind the upcoming Wawa and Burger King, would be a variety of new housing; Townhouses, Single Family and apartments.
To be clear.. nothing has been presented for the residential component
New Dollar General Is Open
The new Dollar General is now open on Delsea Drive. This is a brand new free-standing building, developed to replace the prior store which was in the Village Pub shopping center.
Below is a photo from last month before the signage was put up… I’ll update it over the weekend!
Bella Vista Is Still Planning on Coming
Back in October 2020 we highlighted an exciting project just a little further down Delsea Drive, called Belle Vista… a boomerang shaped project with small retail stores on the ground floor, and housing above.. and a centerpiece large restaurant in the middle!
The project was scheduled for Planning Board review last year, but the presentations were cancelled as additional details of the project were worked out.
42Freeway had a post back in October 2020, including a Youtube video reviewing the site.
Well we’ve shared emails with the project owner and developer, who tells us the project is still moving forward and it won’t be long before he is looking for project approval.
Incidentally.. he was VERY appreciative of the 42Freeway coverage on the project… which always concerns me a bit with some of my posts. 🙂
Who Remembers the OTHER Burger King?!
Many 42Freeway residents will remember that this will not be the first time a Burger King was operating in this intersection!
If you take a good look at the Bank of Princeton on Rt 41 across from the Seven Star Diner… you may be able to pick out the telltale signs of a classic Burger King!
Yes! The Bank of Princeton Building (Deptford) used to be a Burger King location! I can see it’s former life more when looking from the back corner at what used to be the dining area and of course the drive-thru.
The distance between the old Burger King building that closed years ago (and is now a bank), and the new one to be developed in Washington Township… is only about 1 and a half football fields!
Meeting Details
September 7th, 2021 at 6:00 P.M
Township of Washington Planning Board
Municipal Building
523 Egg Harbor Road
Sewell, New Jersey