New Wawa Coming to Center City

Prepare yourself, Center City… Wawa is continuing its trek towards worldwide (or, at least, citywide) domination, and it’s coming to 1199 Ludlow Street. The new convenience store will be located at the East Market mixed-use development, in the second tower. Recently, Wawa and National Real Estate Development announced the ground-floor store will be situated at 12th and Market, and distinguished by a larger-than-life digital hoagie sign. The store will be almost 6,200 square feet.

A new Wawa is coming to Center City!

According to Wawa’s CEO and president Chris Gheysens, the sheer size of the new store will allow it to serve as a prototype for some features that other Wawas don’t have, such as a built-to-order salad line, a bakery line, and places for patrons to sit down and enjoy their food. It’s also been bantered around that residents of 1199 Ludlow Street and The Ludlow next door could be on the receiving end of a delivery service test-run. Gheysens has said that there’s no promises in place, but “We will be doing some delivery tests,” Gheysens suggested. “I can’t imagine why this shouldn’t be the first building where you can go on your Wawa app and have delivery if you live in one of these buildings.”

Right now, Wawa’s only confirmed neighbor will be Iron Hill Brewery, which signed a lease in the opposite corner of the building for almost 8,500 square feet. The tower will extend up twenty stories and will feature 240 units, the target residents of which are young professionals and their families.

“This stretch of Market Street has great history in retail,” said National Development managing director Daniel Killinger to Curbed Philly. “We want to bring that active, retail vibrancy back to Market Street but in a very modern, Philadelphia way, and Wawa is a key piece to making that transformation happen.”

The newest Center City Wawa will open by spring of next year, or maybe even sooner, says Gheysens.