A second serving
Park Place at the Meadowlands is getting the boot – the boot of Italy.
Napoli’s Restaurant plans to open there this spring. After 25 years in Great Southern Shopping Center in Collier Township, owners Bob and Diane Steffl decided to open a second site, 20 minutes away in North Strabane Township.
This appears to be a good fit for the respective parties.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Bob Steffl said. “The developer was looking for a locally owned family restaurant and this is probably one of the fastest-growing townships in the state, if not THE fastest. That whole corridor is going nuts with oil and gas and the casino.”
Park Place is a 44-acre mixed-use project just east of the Racetrack Road-Route 19 intersection. Most of it is in North Strabane, but the part that opened Oct. 30 – a BFS Foods superstore near the entrance – is in South Strabane Township. The 7,500-square-foot complex features a BFS convenience store, Sunoco gas pumps, a car wash and three BFS franchisees located inside: Tim Hortons restaurant, Little Caesars Pizza and Dairy Queen Grill & Chill.
Napoli’s is going into a two-story building behind the superstore. David Biafora of Metro Property Management, the developer, said that building should open in January, and also will feature Tender Care Learning Center, a dry cleaners, yogurt shop, sunbed tanning facility, hair salon, investment firm Waddell & Reed and two medical offices.
Steffl, however, is planning to serve Italian cuisine there in the spring. “We’re pushing for April 1. It all depends on whether we get the parking lot in.”
He said his business will be on the first floor to the right, as viewed from Washington Road. Napoli’s will have two dining rooms and a bar within 4,300 square feet, with seating for 145 inside and 30 more on a patio. One dining area, with seating for 60, can be used for events such as business meetings or parties.
Biafora said he plans “to do a couple more buildings” at Park Place. Next will be a 200-plus-unit apartment complex “for rent only.” He said his Morgantown, W.Va.-based company will close with the bank before the year ends and expects to start “moving earth in January or February.”
Accelerated Construction Services of Morgantown is handling construction of the entire project.
Paige Greenlee, a Tampa, Fla., attorney, formerly of Scenery Hill, has been appointed by the Florida Bar Association to serve a three-year term on the board of the Florida Bar Foundation, a statewide charitable organization that provides leadership and funding for justice in Florida. A commercial litigator with the firm of Sivyer, Barlow & Watson, Greenlee’s practice includes contracts, real estate, construction and creditors’ rights. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from Emory University School of Law.