New locations for two high-profile business brands are in the works for a booming development corridor in Benner Township.
Convenience store chain Wawa’s first Centre County location and McDonald’s newest location are in the planning stages for Benner Pike near Bellefonte, according to early plans shared with the township.
The Wawa would be located directly across from Sheetz between Dunkin’ Donuts and Fulton Bank, township secretary Sharon Royer said. With Rutter’s also located nearby, it would complete a trifecta of major Pennsylvania convenience store chains within less than a mile.
McDonald’s, meanwhile, is looking to build a restaurant near the corner of Benner Pike and Paradise Road at the Paradise Shopping Center where the new Giant Food Stores supermarket is located.
Formal plans have not yet been submitted for either but the businesses have had pre-submission conferences with the township, Royer said.
The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to receive during its meeting on Monday night a brief overview of the Wawa plans and discuss a memorandum of understanding for the developer to reimburse the township for engineering costs associated with plan review. A similar MOU for the McDonald’s land development plan also is listed under new business on the agenda.
Wawa spokesperson Lori Bruce told StateCollege.com in December that the company is looking to open multiple stores in the State College area and that it was working on site selections and land development processes.
“Over the years, we have received thousands of requests to expand into this market, and with so many Penn State students and community members coming from existing ‘Wawalands,’ we knew this was the perfect place to spread our wings,” Bruce wrote in an email. “…We couldn’t be more excited to bring Wawa’s unique brand of convenience to Happy Valley.”
Centre County would be the furthest west in Pennsylvania that Wawa has expanded to date. The company said last summer that it was exploring potentially opening up to 40 stores in central Pennsylvania
Founded in Delaware County in 1964, Wawa operates nearly 1,000 convenience stores and gas stations across Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Florida, while locations in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky are on the way. Its made-to-order menu includes fresh coffee and hoagie sandwiches, among newer offerings like quesadillas and paninis.
McDonald’s, meanwhile, currently has five locations in Centre County. It was not clear if any of those would close with the potential opening of a new location.
