New Plan To Revamp Shopping Center With Future ShopRite In Gloucester Twp.

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ — The developer bringing ShopRite to Gloucester Township's long-vacant Kmart building wants to adjust plans — but not for the future ShopRite itself.

Last year, the township's Planning Board approved a proposal to bring a ShopRite to the former Kmart space in Cherrywood Plaza. The board also approved the construction of a 7,500-square-foot pad site in the shopping center for unspecified restaurant or retail use.

Benderson Development — the company that owns the shopping center — now wants to make the pad site a little bigger, proposing an additional 685 square feet for the building.

A hearing for the new addition is scheduled for Tuesday's Planning Board meeting.

The pad site, which will contain a drive-thru lane, will be located toward the front of the lot off of Blackwood-Clementon Road.

It's unclear which business will occupy it, according to project engineer Aaron Chan.

"At the current time, not all tenants have been finalized," Chan wrote June 23 in planning documents. "Though it is anticipated that typical retail, restaurant, and drive-through type users would occupy the proposed outparcel building."

The anticipated hours of operation at the building would be 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week, Chan says. There would be three to 10 employees there per shift "depending on use," he wrote.

Benderson Development is also proposing an overhead canopy over the proposed outdoor patio — another sign that a restaurant could take the space.

But in planning documents, Township Planner Jenizza Corbin noted that one of the submitted renderings shows a bank in the pad site.

Meanwhile, the ShopRite is under construction. Zallie Family Markets, which will own the store, expects it to open sometime this calendar year.

The new store will replace the ShopRite of Laurel Hill down the road, moving the supermarket into a larger space. With more than 75,000 square feet, the future ShopRite will accommodate grocery pickups and deliveries, among other amenities.

The space has been vacant since Kmart closed in 2017.

Cherrywood Plaza is located at Blackwood-Clementon Avenue and Little Gloucester Road.

The Planning Board meeting starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday.