Pottstown Walmart Supercenter Taking Shape

Location of Pottstown in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

POTTSTOWN, PA  – By the end of summer, the Pottstown Walmart store is going to be a whole lot bigger.

In fact, it’s going to be super.

For the past four months, construction crews have been working on the expansion of the Walmart store in the Pottstown Center, Route 100 and Shoemaker Road, into a Supercenter. In addition to work being done inside and outside the store to grow the Walmart by 55,000 square feet into a SuperCenter – basically a Walmart that includes a full grocery store – the shopping center’s parking lot is also under construction.

That will mean 55,000 square feet of new construction will be added to Pottstown’s tax rolls after the property is reassessed when the construction is complete.

Read more: http://business-news.thestreet.com/the-times-herald/story/pottstown-walmart-supercenter-taking-shape-3/1

Pottstown Finally Takes A Stand Against Border Development

Today’s Pottstown Mercury has an article written by Evan Brandt which certainly makes this resident smile.  Pottstown is finally taking a stand against being skirted by development and having jobs and taxes sucked out of the borough.  Bravo!

Dan Weand and Steve Toroney appear to be the ring leaders in this movement based on the article.  Both are Borough Councilmen (Toroney is President) and on the Pottstown Planning Commission.  Steve Toroney also serves on the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee.

The recent construction of Upland Square in West Pottsgrove Township and the proposed Commerce Corner center in Upper Pottsgrove Township have prompted this stand.  Giant and several other large stores have left Pottstown Plaza and Pottstown Center for Upland Square, thereby taking tax dollars and jobs with them.  Giant also evidently holds the lease on their former Pottstown Plaza site to keep competition out.  I cry foul!  That shopping center needs tenants to fill it back up again.  Purposely keeping that store vacant is just wrong and hurts Pottstown!  People need to know these things so they can make informed decisions about where they want to shop!

The State Street and Route 100 intersection will need redesigned again to accommodate Commerce Corner.  Part of the plan would be to make the entrance into Commerce Corner from Wilson Street.  The entrance would be from Pottstown Borough but Pottstown would not see any revenue, just more traffic on Wilson Street!

Certainly everyone benefits from the jobs created by Upland Square and the potential jobs from Commerce Corner.  However, harming Pottstown in the process is wrong.  This border development places a strain on Pottstown’s infrastructure such as increased water, sewer and police assistance.  Working together regionally is the only way to go.

I hope this movement gains traction and Pottstown can start to benefit from all this development instead of being surrounded by it!  More development is in the works!