December 19, 2022
Developers broke ground this month on a seven-story apartment building slated for the corner of Broad Street and Girard Avenue, where a longstanding CVS Pharmacy was demolished to make way for the new project.
Hightop Development, the company leading the project, has confirmed that German discount grocer Lidl will be the commercial tenant of the building at the busy North Philly intersection.
Details on the project have been adjusted over the course of the year, but Rising Real Estate reported the current plan calls for 171 residential units and 40 ground-level parking spaces.
Most of the grocery store is expected to be housed in a 30,000-square-foot space on the second floor of the building, with an entrance at the intersection leading to escalators and an elevator from the ground floor.
Lidl has been expanding in the U.S. in recent years, opening a pair of stores in the city at 2290 E. Butler St. and 9175 Roosevelt Blvd., both in Northeast Philly.
The corner of Broad Street and Girard Avenue is a major stop along SEPTA's Broad Street Line, making the addition of a grocery store a convenient option for shoppers.
The North Broad Street corridor has seen a number of grocery stores open over the past few years. In 2020, Aldi opened its largest store in the city at 6119 N. Broad St. This June, Giant opened a market on the ground floor of a nine-story apartment building at the corner of Broad and Spring Garden streets. There's also the Fresh Grocer that has long served the community at 1501 N. Broad Street
A timeline for the completion of the project at Broad and Girard has not yet been announced.