Giant Co. opened its new $27 million, 65,000-square-foot flagship store at Riverwalk, a newly developed apartment complex fronting the Schuylkill River on North 23rd Street in Center City to a crowd of eager and curious shoppers.

For Giant Co., a Carlisle-based company, the two-story location is the culmination of exploring other respected grocers to gather ideas and extensive research into new approaches to operations, layout and design. For Philadelphia, it underscores how far the city has come particularly over the last two decades.

“When I started in the real estate business 40 years ago, this site was available for development,” said Ron Caplan, CEO of PMC Property Group, which developed Riverwalk. “They said it would never get developed and the challenge was how to bring life to a part of the city that has never seen development? This site hasn’t seen a ratable in 150 years.”

Development ideas, some grandiose, have come and gone for the stretch of land totaling roughly four acres that had served surface parking for decades. None came to fruition.

But, the changes that have taken place in the city — its population growth, addition of new apartment buildings, pre-pandemic vibrancy and shift westward — along with historically low interest rates and the 10-year tax abatement all conspired to finally make the location where Riverwalk is being developed viable.

“If you don’t have all of the pieces, it’s hard to make it work,” Caplan said. “It’s all timing.”

Caplan emphasized that without the 10-year tax abatement, Riverwalk wouldn’t have happened. “People are quick to criticize the tax abatement as a subsidy,” he said. “It’s not a subsidy. It’s an economic driver.”

As currently written, the abatement gives developers of new construction a break on property taxes for 10 years. That is scheduled to change beginning in 2022 and only provide for the full abatement for the first year of a development and then would be reduced by 10% each subsequent year until the end of the tenth year when it would sunset.

All of the elements Caplan cited also made Giant “a very important piece of the economic model” that made the two-building apartment complex financially work. “All of the pieces came together,” he said.

Riverwalk’s first building, which has 291 apartments at 60 N. 23rd St., is completed and where Giant is located. A second tower with 321 apartments is under construction next door at 2301 John F. Kennedy Blvd.

“This is the culmination of everything we dreamed,” Giant Co. CEO Nicholas Bertram said as he looked across the second floor of the store, which is its main grocery space.

The company had been on an “innovation journey” over the last couple of years, Bertram said. Teams traveled to other grocery stores across the country such as H-E-B, Mariano’s and Publix and the Netherlands, where Giant’s parent company, Ahold Delhaize, is located to gather ideas to incorporate into the new Philadelphia store. A gelato station was borrowed from Mariano’s. An outdoor dining area was taken from H-E-B.

The deck has views of Comcast Technology Center at one end and Cira Centre at the other, a fire pit and outfitted with speakers to accommodate bands and live entertainment.

“I see young couples, kids with their families,” Bertram said. “It’s so beautiful. I can see someone being proposed here.”

Industrial engineers were brought in to determine how some of those ideas could be implemented in the shopping space while keeping merchandise at the forefront and the store efficiently operational. An example of that is the placement of a food hall along one side of the store.

This is the fourth store Giant has opened in Philadelphia. It has three of its smaller Heirloom urban-focused concepts in Center City. This Giant is expected to be a bigger draw than Heirloom and be a shopping destination. “It will be a high-volume store,” Bertram said.

While there’s an idea how much in sales the store will do those figures aren’t exact because of the pandemic, he said.

It also serves as an amenity to those renting an apartment at Riverwalk. A dedicated elevator provides residents direct access to the store.

For the company, its opening is significant in that it does incorporate so many new ideas that will be used in future stores. “It means our growth strategy is working and giving us the freedom to keep on growing,” Bertram said. He anticipates opening additional stores in Philadelphia but how many has yet to be determined.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philadelphia retail space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Grocery Outlet Bargain Market has opened in East Norriton, becoming the newest supermarket to enter the Philadelphia area and adds to the growing competition throughout the region.

The Emeryville, California, chain, which is part of Grocery Outlet Holding Corp., joins other discount grocers that have expanded in the region including Lidl and Aldi in addition to other chains that have increased their presence such as Giant, Acme and Sprouts Farmers Markets.

Grocery Outlet is expanding throughout the mid-Atlantic, said Heather Mayo, chief operations and merchandising office for the Eastern division. “We think there is a ton of opportunity,” she said. “It’s limitless the number of stores we will open. There will be many more to come.”

The grocer has more than 375 locations throughout California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Of that total, 18 stores are along the East Coast and includes 13 locations that were originally Amelia’s Grocery Outlet, a Pennsylvania-based chain purchased by Grocery Outlet and rebranded.

The store in East Norriton at 2917 Swede Road totals 23,000 square feet of which 15,000 is the sales floor. A Genuardi’s had once operated from the space.

“It made sense for us,” Mayo said. “We love the location, it was an underserved market and know it will work extremely.”

Products at the store sell for 40% to 50% below brands. The company also buys surplus products from manufacturers to stock stores.

Like a franchise, Grocery Outlets (NASDAQ: GO) are owned independently and the East Norriton store is owned and operated by David Tress, who had been in the restaurant industry.

“Unfortunately with the pandemic and current landscape, the grocery business seemed like an appropriate move and a little more family friendly,” Tress said.

The store plans to employ 28 people.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philadelphia retail space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. opened its 34th local branch in Newtown Square on Tuesday and has three more planned for later in the month. That will bring the New York banking giant to 37 Philadelphia-area locations as it nears the halfway point of a five-year plan to open 50 sites in the region.

The bank has also received approval for 11 other locations, including two this week, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The bank said it expects to open a total of 13 this year, which would bring it to 46 branches in three years.

Here are the planned March openings:

• • 3604 West Chester Pike in Newtown Square – opened March 2
  • 2900 Island Ave. Suite 2942 (Penrose Plaza) in South Philadelphia – opening March 23
  • 396 W. Lancaster Ave. in Haverford – opening March 23
  • 220 E. Baltimore Ave. in Media – opening March 30

The Penrose Plaza location is considered a low- to moderate-income neighborhood, bringing Chase’s total branches in such areas to 10, or 27% of existing locations. When CEO Jamie Dimon visited Philadelphia in September 2018 to announce plansto enter the local retail banking market, Chase committed to locating 20% in LMI neighborhoods. In 2019, Chase upped the stakes by saying it would have 30% of branches in LMI neighborhoods.

The new openings will also give Chase seven locations in Delaware, six in South Jersey and 24 in southeastern Pennsylvania, which include 13 in Philadelphia, four each in Montgomery and Delaware counties and three in Chester County.

Chase has not opened any branches in Bucks County yet but that should change soon, as it has received regulatory approval for sites in Southampton, Doylestown, Warminster and Warrington. Other locations in the works include Port Richmond in Philadelphia; Norristown and Ambler in Montgomery County; Willingboro, Moorestown and Woodbury in South Jersey; and Wilmington in Delaware.

Asked if Chase might wind up exceeding its 50-branch goal since it has moved so quickly, a spokeswoman said she couldn’t speculate at this point.

According to annual FDIC deposit data as of June 30, 2020, Chase had yet to make much of a dent in the retail banking competitive landscape. It had 23 branches opened in the region with a combined $553 million in deposits — good enough for just 31st out of 107 banks. That’s only $24 million in deposits per branch, less than a quarter of the $100 million that is viewed as a strong number in the banking industry. As a basis of comparison, its branches outside this region average $343 million in deposits per branch. Chase should improve its local numbers as the branches mature but by how much will be telling.

If Chase averaged $100 million in deposits per branches when it reaches 50 branches, that would equal a total of $5 billion in local deposits. That would be good enough for 10th in the region behind Wells Fargo Bank, TD Bank, PNC Bank, Bank of America, Citizens Bank, WSFS Bank, Santander Bank, M&T Bank and Truist Bank. And if it reached its national average of $343 million deposits per branch, it would move up to sixth locally with more than $17 billion in deposits.

Chase has also met another goal of hiring 300 branch employees. The bank already exceeded that figure late last year, as a spokeswoman said the bank was being conservative with its original estimate but it usually hires a minimum of between five and seven employees per branch and spends several months training them before a branch opens.

Chase got off to a fast start in the Philadelphia region, opening 23 local branches in just 15 months before the coronavirus pandemic caused it to hit the pause button in March 2020. It began ramping back up expansion plans in July.

The pandemic has accelerated plans by many banks to consolidate their branch footprints as customers become even more comfortable with online and mobile banking options. In the Philadelphia region, most large banks are focused on trimming their physical footprints. Wells Fargo closed 329 last year and has plans to shutter about 250 more this year. TD Bank recently filed to close 81 of its 1,223 branches, including 11 in this region. PNC closed 160 branches last year and plans to close at least another 120 this year. Citizens Bank closed 51 last year and 40 already this year.

While Chase is growing in new markets such as Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh, it has been pruning its footprint in its more established markets, cutting 258 branches last year and 17 so far in 2021.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philadelphia retail space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.