Starbucks is moving in along Racetrack Road
Construction of North Strabane Township’s first Starbucks store along Racetrack Road is underway after suffering a permitting setback that delayed opening by at least one year.
“It’s moving along,” said township manager Andy Walz, but “I wouldn’t say it’s going to be done anytime soon.”
The coffee shop’s exterior is nearly complete, and work on the interior began within the last week, Walz said.
In January 2021, North Strabane Township held a conditional use hearing for the Chicago-based Key Development Partners LLC to build a Starbucks Coffee outlet beside the Doubletree Hotel along Racetrack Road. The company proposed building a store with retail, dining and a drive-thru on one acre of land just down the hill from Hollywood Casino at The Meadows.
Key Development Partners also applied to build a drive-thru ATM on a plot of land beside the new Starbucks.
“It got approved,” said Walz, noting last time he heard from the company, the financial provider for the ATM had not been officially selected.
Ground was expected to break in spring of last year, with Starbucks opening in fall 2021, just in time for pumpkin spice season.
But the highway occupancy permit application process took longer than expected.
“PennDOT did a review there. Racetrack Road is a state road, so (Key Development) had to go through PennDOT. They had a pretty extensive review process with them,” Walz said. “We didn’t issue a final building permit until (the review came back).”
Work at the new Starbucks site began at the end of November. But in February, the state Department of Transportation still had not issued a highway occupancy permit.
Then, Walz told the Observer-Reporter contractors could grade the land, but construction wouldn’t begin until the company received its HOP from PennDOT.
PennDOT issued a highway occupancy permit in March of this year, said Joel Morris, business performance manager for PennDOT. Construction on the coffee shop’s exterior began shortly thereafter.
The new Starbucks sits near Sheetz, and the store is just a quick drive from major highways like Interstate 79.
“As part of the permit process, it was determined that the access driveway to Racetrack Road needed upgraded,” Morris said in an email. “The traffic study showed that no further mitigations were needed.”
A completion date for the new Starbucks store has not yet been set.