Huge Wynnewood Whole Foods Gets Go-Ahead from Lower Merion Township

At its last monthly meeting before the fall Monday night, the Lower Merion Township Planning Commission gave the green light to a huge new Whole Foods Market at the intersection of Lancaster Avenue and Wynnewood Road.

The new, 45,000-square-foot supermarket, which would replace an existing store just west of the site, will occupy a lot assembled from eight parcels stretching eastward from the Cumberland Farms store at the intersection to just west of the Citizens Bank on Wynnewood. Two large office buildings, the Cumberland Farms and six other commercial structures will be demolished to make way for the store.

The new Wynnewood Whole Foods will be three times the size of the existing store and include at least one first-in-the-region feature for the chain: a pub serving wine and beer. It will also have an outdoor seating area.

The review of the project included some discussion of handling the traffic and landscaping on the site. The size of the building led the developer to seek a waiver of the township’s landscaping requirements for the site.

The commissioners also approved three smaller redevelopment projects in Bala-Cynwyd, Bryn Mawr and Villanova at its July meeting. The Lower Merion Planning Commission will take August off and resume meeting in September.

• New Wynnewood Whole Foods Market, three other projects up for review in Lower Merion July 24 [Main Line Media News]