First reported at 42Freeway almost two years ago, plans for a new Zallie ShopRite at the former Blackwood-Clementon Road K-Mart building (Cherrywood Shopping Center) have been officially submitted to the Gloucester Township Planning Board. A public hearing is set for January 23rd.
POSTPONED: The meeting did not take place in January (developer’s request). It has not been rescheduled.
Originally Zallie stated this planned Shoprite would around 75,000 square feet. Well, not only does it appear they are taking the entire K-Mart first floor of 95,000 sq ft, the project will have a small second floor of 14,000 sq ft.
The combined 112,000 sq ft makes this proposed new store… TWICE the size of the existing Laurel Hill location that it will replace! And about 40-50% larger than the new Woolwich store!
The existing Laurel Hill Shoprite which is located ¾ a mile to the East on the same roadway (at College Drive), will close once the new Zallie’s Shoprite Cherrywood is open. Effectively it’s a relocation of the Laurel Hill Shoprite into a new and much larger space.
Fun fact, today Zallie owns TWELVE ShopRite supermarkets, but Laurel Hill was the family’s first! And most will agree that with it’s smaller size, tougher parking situation and dated appearance… well not many will complain about the relocation of Laurel Hill!
The project proposal also includes other upgrades to the shopping center such as an additional stand-alone pad building to be developed closer to the Total Wine store.
Each Shoprite is owned by independent owner/operators and both the existing Laurel Hill and proposed Cherrywood locations are owned by Zallie… who have their headquarters right in Gloucester Township.
Zallie recently opened a brand new Shoprite in Woolwich Center Square, and completely rebuilt and expanded their Glassboro location. Both stores are very attractive modern designs, and offer all of the latest features that shoppers expect from a large supermarket today.
I have not seen the full plans yet for the new Shoprite Cherrywood, but last year I had a chance to meet with Zallie’s owner David Zallie who confirmed that the upcoming Cherrywood location will feature a similar design and feature-set that they have in the new Woolwich and Glassboro locations.
Renderings of the proposed Cherrywood location shows that it will have similar exterior design elements as the Woolwich location.
While Zallie is the owner of the proposed Shoprite Cherrywood, they do not own the shopping center, and will be a tenant in the space.
The property is owned by Benderson Development, a Florida based developer with over 800 properties and 45 million square feet of space.
With Benderson as the property owner, they are actually the entity formerly applying for the property modifications, but I imagine the Zallie Shoprite team will be a big part of the Planning Board presentation.
With considerable construction set to take place for the Shoprite, Benderson is taking the opportunity to make additional improvements to the center.
A new 7,500 square foot retail/restaurant pad building is proposed within the center (front parking area likely) and a twenty-four foot (24’) tall screening and sound attenuation wall will be developed behind the proposed Shop Rite.
Beyond that it is stated that other various improvements will take place within the shopping center, which I assume to mean facade design upgrades.
Zallie Shoprite Cherrywood – New Modern Design
As mentioned, with the Planning Meeting just announced, as I write this at 9:00 AM I have not seen the blueprints or site plans for the project yet, but I hope to see them later today.
That being said a few things we do know… As mentioned Zallie has published a front store rendering of the proposed Cherrywood ShopRite, and we have had a chance to visit and shop at the new Woolwich and Glassboro Zallie Shoprites. Both stores feature the larger, modern and more feature-filled shopping experience, and I was previously told that we can expect a similar shopping experience from Shoprite Cherrywood.
Honestly if you’ve visited the all new Woolwich New Jersey ShopRite (or seen the images)… the front facade of the proposed Cherrywood location features very similar exterior design elements.
For proposed Blackwoodd-Clementon Shoprite they are taking over a former Kmart building, and we are all familiar with the Kmart design style… which really isn’t a “style” at all!
K-Mart store exteriors were basic rectangles with cinder block walls painted neutral colors on the outside, and a single basic center entrance.
So while it is an existing building, for Zallie it’s really a blank canvas for them to create their signature design on. The flat walls will be replaced by more interesting and eye appealing segments of varying depths and heights. Windows will be added at various locations.
The store appears to feature two exterior foyer areas.
Based on my visits to Woolwich and looking at the Zallie Cherrywood rendering, it appears that the store’s main customer entrance will be on the left side of the building and is a fully enclosed and large foyer entrance.
Over more to the right of the building will be a large covered drive-up area, which will support customer order pickup and delivery services. Zallie states they will support a full “Order. Pickup. Deliver.” department.
In April of last year the fully remodeled Glassboro Zallie ShopRite opened, and a month later the completely new construction Woolwich store opened. Of course 42Freeway covered both of those openings!
You can read a lot more detailed commentary along with plenty of photos in those individual articles, but I’ll share some of the highlights here… as the Cherrywood location is expected to offer similar design aspects and features.
For the Woolwich store that opened last year, I described it as a ”store within a store”.
Yes the largest portion of the supermarket features well lit traditional rows of shelving for classic supermarket items such as canned goods, pasta, paper goods, snacks and such. And they offer a very large number of refrigerator and freezer units.
And the flooring and wall decor are many steps above the plain white design some of us remember from going to Pathmark 40 years ago!
But the real Wow factor of the upgraded Zallie supermarkets is the open market section of the store, which you walk into immediately from the main entrance.
It offers most of the fresh products and prepare foods in one open floor plan space, where every aspect has been upgraded to a premium level… offering an attractive shopping experience, offering plenty of space to move around in, while being very functional.
Seriously the moment you walk into the front entrance at Woolwich or Glassboro, you’ll feel like you’ve been transported into another place… a shopping experience you’d expect to only find in California or Seattle!
The fresh food area is significant sized with bright lighting to highlight the fresh produce and fruits. The upgraded ShopRites featuring full bakeries, deli, a large array of prepared foods, a big cheese department… and fresh sushi which is made right there in the store by trained sushi chefs!
Both Woolwich and Glassboro feature an in-store customer seating area, with Woolwich having a larger space allocated to the seating as well as an outdoor dining area with fire pits! I’m not certain at this time if Cherrywood will have an outdoor dining area. (until I see the plans!)
Well I just wanted to give a teaser of what we can expect from the upcoming Zallie ShopRite Cherrywood location.
I hope to be able to update this article later today after I’ve had a chance to review the proposed plans.
Links and Locations
Zallie Shoprite Cherrywood (Proposed)
1468 Blackwood Clementon Rd
Clementon, NJ 08021
Gloucester Township Planning Board Hearing
January 23, 2024, at 7:00 p.m
Council Room of the Gloucester Township Municipal Complex
1261 Chews Landing-Clementon Rd
Laurel Springs, New Jersey 08021
Opening Day Coverage of Glassboro and Woolwich: