A shopping center with a grocery store is planned for the property along Lancaster Avenue.
Reading, PA —
Developer Alan W. Shuman is planning to redevelop a former car dealership in Reading into a shopping center.
Shuman, president of Shuman Development Group, said Monday that he is looking to convert the former A.W. Golden Cadillac building at 733 Lancaster Ave. into a neighborhood shopping center with a grocery store as an anchor.
The center would be similar to two other shopping centers Shuman developed in the city: one at North Eighth and Oley streets and one at Kutztown Road and Hiesters Lane.
“For neighborhood shopping centers like that in the city you usually want to have a grocery anchor, some type of dollar store, a pharmacy, a pizza place, a sandwich place, a barber shop — all those neighborhood kind of things,” Shuman said.
A rendering on Shuman Development Group’s Facebook page shows a Save-A-Lot store, but Shuman said a deal to have a Save-A-Lot is not finalized.
“We definitely want to have a grocery anchor, but that’s not locked in,” he said.
Shuman said there are about 12,000 people who live within a half-mile of the property, and a shopping center like the one he’s proposing is needed.
“There’s no other shopping in that neighborhood within walking distance,” he said.
Shuman said he has the property under agreement and hopes to settle on it in April. Construction would then begin in April or May and start moving tenants in by September.
Online public records list the owner of 733 Lancaster Ave. as AW Golden Inc.
Shuman said that he has already applied for the necessary zoning and construction permits, and he hopes to receive them in the coming weeks.
Sam Loth, coordinator of the 18th Wonder Improvement Association, a nonprofit organizations created to develop and manage sustainability and prosperity in the city’s 18th Ward, said the association supports the development.
Loth said a grocery store is desperately needed in the area. He noted that the development is within walking distance to the Oakbrook Homes neighborhood, which is home to several hundred families.
“The idea of putting in retail and anchoring it with a food store is excellent,” he said.
Loth said the association is looking at improving Gerry Street, which is at the rear of the property. The street, which is unfinished and blocked by trees and undergrowth, would provide a direct connection between the property and the Oakbrook Homes, he said.
“We’re talking about a connection to shopping, and especially grocery shopping, that’s only two blocks from essentially 800 families,” he said.
The A.W. Golden dealership opened at the location in 1955. The building also served for a time as an Isuzu dealership. It has been vacant for several years.
The property comprises two separate parcels totaling about 4 1/2 acres, Shuman said. The building is about 46,000 square feet, he said.