A Wawa convenience store and gas station totaling some 10,000 square feet continues to make progress along St. Georges Avenue with an expectation to open this summer.
Designated as Store #8389 on Wawa’s website, the Rahway location is listed as one of three New Jersey locations “opening summer 2018,” along with new stores in Cherry Hill and Sewell. Another new location in Cinnaminson is scheduled to open in the fall. Wawa’s grand opening page for now only lists the Sewell location, which opens on Thursday. UPDATED, 7/9: The web page now lists a grand opening for Thursday; doors open at 8 a.m., with a ribbon cutting at 10 a.m.
The Wawa job website is accepting applications for a customer service associate, fuel service associate, and night supervisor for the Rahway location.
Other New Jersey sites have approvals for construction of new Wawa’s but aren’t listed as opening soon, such as a site in Frankford, Sussex County, which gained approval in March. Wawa operates almost 750 locations in six states and Washington, D.C., according to that story, and the president/CEO said five years ago that he plans to open five Wawa’s a year in North Jersey “for the next 10, 12 years.”
Other reports have indicated no fewer than six new locations expected to open this year in New Jersey, including Roselle Park, Newark, Dover, East Hanover and Jersey City, with plans in the works for construction in Springfield, Edison and Linden.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment granted unanimous approval in August 2016 to build a 5,051-square-foot convenience store and 5,280-square foot canopy over six fuel pumps.
The former two-story, Power & Fitness building on the 3.6-acre site was demolished last August. The property is comprised of two lots (Block 6, Lots 3 and 4), with one listed as 280 St. Georges Ave., and another that fronts Murray Street, which will be the only way to navigate toward eastbound lanes of St. Georges Avenue, as left turns will be prohibited from Wawa onto St. Georges Avenue. Together, the two lots generated a tax bill of about $76,736 for the 2017 tax year based on an overall assessment of $1,175,500, according to property records.
280 St. Georges Ave., LLC, a single-purpose entity created by AST Development, purchased the property from Rahway-based Giacobbe and Sons Contractors for $2.3 million in April 2017. The Lavallette-based real estate development firm partnered on the construction of Metro Rahway, a 116-unit rental complex along Campbell Street that was completed in 2014. AST Development also is developing a 219-unit rental complex on the site of the former Center Circle athletic facility on Main Street.
