Silver Spring site readied for retailing
By Joseph Cress,March 24, 2006
A sign warning “Stay Out” stands in front of a bulldozer guarding the entrance to what used to be a Sunday morning tradition.
The Silver Spring flea market is history — razed to make way for a shopping center.
A parking lot once filled with cars every weekend now is storage for long segments of drainage pipe. An industrial-sized tub grinder reducing stacks of tree trunks to mulch has replaced the roar of engines from nearby Silver Spring Speedway.
And all that remains of the adjacent mobile home park are piles of wood and metal scrap, cinder blocks and vacant rectangular lots of chip stone.
14 demolition permits
Demolition work is virtually complete at the site of the future Silver Spring Square II retail center along Carlisle Pike.
This is the result of about 14 demolition permits that Silver Spring Township issued in January, says Bob Greene, building code officer.
As of Thursday, no building permits were issued, he said, and Regency Centers has yet to record its land development plan with Cumberland County.
Township Zoning Officer Jim Hall is not sure when that could happen but, in the meantime, Regency Centers has a stormwater land disturbance permit to move earth, put in curbing and install a drainage system.
Powell Arms is vice president in charge of investments for the Northeast Region of Regency Centers. He confirmed work is under way to install drainage and utilities as well as smooth out the rolling hills of the construction site.
Target date: March 2007
The plan is to break ground on the first buildings by mid-June with the grand opening of the center planned for March 2007, Arms says.
Hall says the developer submitted an application before the zoning hearing board for variances from the township ordinance governing the size and number of signs.
Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond, Ross, Target and Wegmans Food Market were listed in the application as stores seeking more signage than what is permitted, Hall says.
The zoning board granted some but not all of the requests, Hall says, noting he does not know if Regency has commitments from any of the retail chains.
Arms says Regency has not secured commitments from all the stores. “We are still working with them.”
He would not disclose any details on which stores have committed, preferring to let each chain announce its own plans for the site.
Arms says Regency is talking with three prospective restaurant chains to occupy free standing buildings and is still looking for tenant stores in the range of 20,000 square feet or less to occupy the retail center.
Last October, a spokeswoman for Wegmans confirmed the company plans to build a store there.
Communications Specialist Jeanne Colleluori said Wednesday the chain still plans to build a store in the township but the building site has yet to be prepared and delivered to Wegmans by Regency.
Wegmans anticipates opening the store sometime in 2007, Colleluori says.
The Rochester, N.Y.-based Wegmans is family-owned with 69 stores in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.
Calls to Target, Best Buy and Bed Bath and Beyond were not returned by press time.
Ross not committed yet
Katie Loughnot is vice president in charge of investor and media relations for Ross.
She says her company would only confirm a location once a lease has been fully signed and executed.
As of Thursday, the company did not have any such lease for a location in the Silver Spring Township or Mechanicsburg area, Loughnot says.
She adds Ross is looking at several locations throughout Pennsylvania. Based in the San Francisco Bay area, Ross has 20 stores in Pennsylvania including one in Carlisle.
Eventually, Regency Centers will demolish several stores along Carlisle Pike, including the building at 6430 Carlisle Pike that since 1985 has housed Cremo’s Variety Outlet.
Owner Larry Cremo said Wednesday that construction began last week on a new location less than half a mile up the pike beside the Saturn auto dealership.
Regency Centers has been working with the family-run business, allowing it to continue to operate until construction of the new outlet is complete — possibly by late July, Cremo says.
“We have been giving them constant updates” about the new variety outlet’s progress.
Cremo adds this is a positive move for the outlet, which outgrew the old building about 10 years ago. “We will have more room to expand.”