Dec 7, 2014 8 min read

You can see a lot from high on a hill, such as the one overlooking Racetrack Road.

You can envision a lot there too.

“We’re getting a largely strong response from retailers who want to part of a shopping center rather than buying land to build,” said Herky Pollock of CBRE Inc.

Pollock, executive vice president of the commercial property giant, was enthusiastically referring to one of his projects: a 33,000-square-foot strip shopping center at Meadows Landing that isn’t there yet.

Land has been cleared, but no leases have been signed and work on the center proper won’t begin until spring. Still, Pollock is fired up about the possibilities in what has become a land of plenty.

The Route 19 corridor in Washington County, from the northern border to Murtland Avenue in South Strabane Township, is going kaboom – and likely will continue to do so. Oil and gas and its supporting industries not only are thriving, but are helping to fuel growth in retail, real estate and entertainment.

Meadows Landing, in South Strabane Township, is representative of what has been transpiring for nearly two years along Route 19 – aka Washington Road. Washington Area Teachers Federal Credit Union and Washington Health System’s outpatient center opened this fall, and a Speedway convenience store/gasoline station are well underway, targeted for a mid-January debut.

Being the linchpin of the fourth project there excites Pollock, who works for the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm.

“We’re fully able to market the site,” said Pollock, who also is Northeast director of the Retailer Services Group for CBRE, based in Los Angeles. “There’s been a tremendous amount of growth surrounding us, with Southpointe and Marcellus Shale development. This will be a good community shopping center with great visibility and access to Route 19, the interstates and surrounding areas.”

The strip center will be L-shaped and immediately to the right of the entrance to the complex. Pollock estimated that 15 businesses – retail services and professional services – will go into the mixed-use center. The construction process, he hopes, will move swiftly.

“We’re anticipating a summer to early fall 2015 opening.”

In the meantime, heavy machinery keeps grinding away. Here is glimpse of other, but certainly not all, projects along this 12-mile stretch.

It’s already a destination to meet, eat and work. Now Park Place at the Meadowlands also is beginning to evolve into a residential locale.

David Biafora of Metro Property Management, the Morgantown, W.Va.-based developer, said Phase II of the project began recently with earth-moving for a 206-unit complex of apartments and townhomes for rent. The units will be called, appropriately, Park Place at Meadowlands.

He anticipates earthwork to be completed in “60 to 90 days,” pending the vagaries of winter, with construction to follow. Biafora projects a midsummer 2015 opening.

The 44-acre project is percolating, with signage up and businesses functioning in the two buildings that have been finished. Park Place is slightly east of the Route 19-Racetrack Road intersection, mostly in North Strabane with a relative sliver in South Strabane.

That sliver includes the first businesses to open on the site, in November 2013:

the BFS Foods superstore building at the front, home of a BFS convenience store, Sunoco gas pumps, and three BFS franchisees: Tim Hortons restaurant, Little Caesars Pizza and Dairy Queen Grill & Chill.

The second structure, well behind BFS, has a number of tenants operating with others committed in the future: Burgerz and Dogz, Don Patron Mexican Grill, Organic Hair Salon and Redwing Shoes.

Biafora said Phase II also will feature two office/retail buildings: one with 36,000 square feet, next to BFS, and one in North Strabane with 20,000 square feet.

Eat ‘n Park has a lot on its plate in the township, pledging to stay in Peters but at a new site a half-mile north of the current one. The plot, at the intersection of Washington and Hidden Valley roads, is being cleared for a more modern Place for Smiles, targeted to open next October.

Much of the structure, idle for more than two years, has been demolished. It most recently was home to a chiropractic clinic and, long before that, Ernie’s Esquire supper club.

That building, at 3380 Washington Road, is/was across Hidden Valley Road from a Bob Evans restaurant – and down Route 19 from the current location at 3528.

Ed Zuk, Peters’ planning director, said the township approved site plans for 6,514 square feet for the Eat ‘n Park and 4,588 square feet for other retail on that parcel. But he said no other would-be tenant has signed a lease.

Slightly to the south, two auto dealerships – South Hills Honda and South Hills Kia – are operating but undergoing renovations that should be competed by next summer, Zuk said. Honda is putting up a new building and tearing down others, and Kia is rebuilding and erecting a small addition.

Zuk said Nemacolin Pet Resort, providing pet grooming and boarding and veterinary services, will be locating in 3109 Washington Road, just north of the new Valley Brook Road ramp.

Printers USA and Sonshine Fitness will be relocating from that vicinity by early January. Keith Boivin, president of Printers USA, said his firm will stay on Route 19 on Peters, but hasn’t signed a lease on a new venue. He said he is negotiating on more than one site and hopes to have an agreement soon.

“We’ll be more in the center of Peters,” Boivin said. “We’ve been here for over 30 years and plan to stay in Peters for a long time.”

Speedway, a convenience store giant, is revved up about becoming the third tenant to wheel into Meadows Landing. It plans to open the third week of January, said Stefanie Griffith, communications manager for Marathon Petroleum Corp., parent of Speedway.

She added, via email, that this 3,900-square-foot location will have 16 fueling lanes, a convenience store, a walk-in area with cold packaged soft drinks and a Speedy Café.

Griffith described the cafe as a “fast casual restaurant where customers place their orders on a self-serve ordering kiosk. The food is freshly prepared and will feature paninis, subs, specialty dogs, [customized] pizzas” and other items.

Speedway LLC, based in Enon, Ohio, has a presence in Western Pennsylvania, but this is its first foray into Washington or Greene counties. The company has more than 2,700 stores in 22 states, including West Virginia and Ohio.

From Washington Road, the convenience complex will be to the immediate right of the outpatient center. Six tenants already are in that center: Tri-State Surgery Center, WHS’s Women’s Center, laboratory draw site, Keystone Pain Consultants, Southwest Gastroenterology and Washington Ear Nose & Throat.

Retail locations remain, but are diminishing in this rapidly paced project in South Strabane,

“There are only two or three spaces left and there is strong interest in them. I think we’ll have leases in early 2015,” said Andy Boyd, senior asset manager for The Staenberg Group, the St. Louis-based developer of the project.

One of those voids is large – 12,000 square feet between Field & Stream and Hobby Lobby. Apparently, it’s popular as well.

“That’s a big one,” Boyd said. “We’re in negotiations with several potential tenants.”

He refuses to name suitors until a lease is consummated, and said the only recent signings were by Penn Station East Coast Subs, which has hiring signs up, and a tanning salon. Chick fil A has a lease and may open in February or March.

Krency’s, a dining/bakery icon at two Washington sites, opened about a month ago in the 104-acre project in South Strabane. This site, unlike the other stores, does not have doughnuts or bread, but it has all of the other baked goods made at the Jefferson Avenue store. Old Mill hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.

Honest – Northwest Savings Bank will open its Murtland Avenue branch Feb. 12, Lincoln’s birthday.

Northwest’s footprint in South Strabane will be moving about a mile south, from the Walmart in Trinity Point to 260 Murtland, a snowball throw from the Washington city line. So will the six branch employees.

The 2,600-square-foot building is virtually up, across from the AAA office. Chris Claspy, vice president and Washington County area manager, said interior work remains.

Claspy, who also will be the branch manager, said via email “this new office will be a great option for personal and business customers to consider for any of their financial needs.”

Among the amenities he listed were “self-service safe deposit boxes with hand-scan access, two drive through windows and a drive-up Automatic Deposit ATM that will allow customers to make cash and check deposits 24/7.”

Northwest, based in Warren, Pa., was formed in 1897. It has more than 2,000 employees at 165 branches in four states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland and New York. Most branches are in the Keystone State.

There are six Washington County branches: Murtland Avenue, Washington, Canonsburg, McDonald, Fredericktown and Marianna.