As it eyes an East Coast expansion that could double its size, Wawa has plans for at least five new stores in Delaware.
The gas station and convenience store chain has 965 stores in Delaware; Pennsylvania; New Jersey; Washington, D.C.; Virginia; and Florida. In an interview with the Philadelphia Business Journal last month, CEO Chris Gheysens said Wawa wants to have nearly 2,000 stores by 2030.
To reach that mark the company will double the pace of its annual growth, aiming to open about 100 stores every year. Gheysens said customers should expect Wawa to “fill in the market” between Virginia and Florida. The company has already announced it is looking at sites for an expansion to North Carolina by 2024.
In Delaware, at least five stores are at various stages of the development pipeline. According to Wawa’s website, the first expected new location is at Route 40 and Bear Christiana Road in Bear. It will be a new construction in place of an older Wawa.
Developer Dennis Silicato told Delaware Online/The News Journal last year that he expects a Wawa to open at Edwards Street and Route 113 in Georgetown this spring or summer.
The Pennsylvania-based company is also eyeing the Leon’s Garden World property at Elkton and Otts Chapel roads on the outskirts of Newark. The City Council last year voted to annex the property to help enable the project.
Wawa is part of plans for a development east of University Plaza on Route 273 in Christiana and the redevelopment of Astro shopping center next to the Newark Farmers Market on Kirkwood Highway in Milltown.
Today, Wawa outpaces Delaware’s next-largest convenience store chain Royal Farms by about a dozen stores. The Baltimore-based chain has 37 Delaware locations, including a heavier concentration of stores in Sussex County.
Royal Farms has plans to build new locations at Route 40 and School Bell Road near New Castle, off Route 13 at Port Penn Road north of Middletown and at Route 16 and Route 5 in Milton.
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Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.
