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A Weis Markets grocery store will anchor the Bayberry Town Center set to break ground this fall north of Middletown. | PHOTO COURTESY OF WEIS MARKETS[/caption]
MIDDLETOWN – A Weis Markets grocery store will anchor a new commercial plaza north of Middletown in the Bayberry master-planned community.
Blenheim Group, the Newark-based residential and hotel developer that began work on the Village of Bayberry community that spans 1,500 acres on both sides of Boyds Corner Road back in 2010, made the announcement Wednesday morning.
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The Bayberry Town Center will be the largest grocery-anchored shopping plaza in the MOT corridor, according to its developer. | DBT PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS[/caption]
The 64,000-square-foot Weis store, its fourth in Delaware, will anchor a new 280,000-square-foot Bayberry Town Center commercial plaza and feature a gas station. The mid-Atlantic food retailer already operates 197 stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia and Virginia. The Bayberry location is scheduled to open in 2025.
The town center is anticipated to break ground this fall and is poised to be the largest grocery-anchored center in the fast-growing Middletown-Odessa-Townsend (MOT) corridor in southern New Castle County, according to the developer. Although other tenants have not yet been announced, Blenheim aims to include a combination of grocery, upscale shopping, restaurants, services, banking and health care.
The center will also feature 31,000 square feet of office space, two green spaces for community programming, 145 townhomes and a connective artery to 3,400 homes in the rear of Bayberry's northern community.
"It’s a significant milestone for us here at Bayberry to welcome Weis Markets and kickstart additional leasing activity at the future Bayberry Town Center, the final phase in our multi-year development of The Village of Bayberry master-planned community,” said Jay Sonecha, president of Blenheim Group, in a statement announcing the deal. "Located in one of Delaware's fastest-growing residential areas, Bayberry Town Center will give local residents a new first-class grocery option, while also providing convenient access to quality goods and services and enjoyable dining and entertainment with family and friends. We look forward to naming more tenants in the coming months and breaking ground."
The addition of Weis on Boyds Corner Road will be an answer to one of the biggest requests of MOT-area residents, who currently only have grocery options in downtown Middletown and few options for gas stations east of Route 896.
It also comes with a captive market in Bayberry, which features 1,700 sold homes and plans for another 1,000 homes in the coming years. Part of the community’s selling point has always been the addition of commercial tenants that would help insulate the needs of residents, but it’s taken more than a decade to reach the point of breaking ground.
“Weis Markets is eager to serve The Village of Bayberry and the surrounding communities in the years ahead. When open, our new Bayberry Town Center store will offer a strong combination of quality, service, convenience and value,” Dennis Curtin, Weis Markets director of public relations, said in a statement.
