Leaps & bounds Route 19 has groundswell of earth-moving projects
Work has begun on a 10,000-square-foot retail strip addition to the Old Mill shopping complex in South Strabane Township.
Graytok
Boone
Helfrich
Summertime and the construction is busy.
The diverging diamond interchange with Interstate 70 isn’t the only project going full bore along Route 19 in Washington County. Earth is being moved and structures are going up throughout a four-mile stretch of North and South Strabane townships – from Meadowbrook Drive to Murtland Avenue.
From north to south …
• Pittsburgh Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Center is building a second location off Meadowbrook Drive. Site preparation began three weeks ago for a 15,000-square-foot facility, which will treat patients only on a referral or emergency basis.
The project should take a year to complete, said hospital administrator Ken Spokane. PVSEC is based in Ohio Township, Allegheny County.
R.D. Stewart Co. of Sharpsburg is the on-site contractor, which has excavated a mountain of boulders and rocks that is visible from Washington Road.
Although the address will be 1535 Washington Road, access to the center will be from Meadowbrook Drive, according to North Strabane building inspector Doug Trbovich.
Work there began just a few weeks after University Veterinarian Specialists, a 24-hour hospital, opened on Washington Road, eight miles to the north in Peters Township.
• About 150 yards down from Meadowbrook, and across Route 19, phase II of the Park Place at the Meadowlands continues to evolve. Bacon, Bourbon & Beer opened three weeks ago and Planet Fitness and 206 rental units – 116 apartments, 90 townhouses – remain under construction.
• Downhill and slightly off Racetrack Road, a Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant is going up near Primanti Bros. in the Street of the Meadows project. Block has been laid and steel has been set for a building that Dunkin’ will share with one or two other tenants.
A November opening is planned, said Anthony Braun, chief operating officer for Heartland Restaurant Group, the Strip District-based franchisee for Dunkin’ in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
He added this location will have about 1,900 square feet of space with full line offerings; outside seating; inside seating for 30; and a drive-up window. Forty will be employed initially.
• Following an extended lull, Old Mill is under construction again in South Strabane. Site work has begun behind Chick-fil-A restaurant on a 10,000-square-foot building that will be occupied by four to six tenants.
“We have gotten a lot of interest from quick service restaurants and general retailers,” said Andy Boyd, senior asset manager for TSG Properties, the St. Louis-based owner of the 104-acre complex. No leases have been signed for that location.
Boyd said the building should be completed by late October with the first tenants moving in by year’s end.
• Across the highway, the former Sharp’s Furniture property is being refashioned. The site, off Route 19 and across from Old Mill, is being prepared for a strip shopping center.
Details are sparse. Summer Ewing of Win Development LLC, the Belleair Beach, Fla.-based ownership group, said in a recent email that “while we are very close to finalizing our tenant mix, we are still a few weeks away from being able to publicly discuss it.”
The Pittsburgh office of CBRE Group is handling leasing.
• Another Dunkin’ Donuts is being developed at the intersection of Murtland and Raymond Boulevard, adjacent to AAA Travel Agency. Site preparation is underway and a late November/early December opening is targeted.
Heartland’s Braun said this location will be free standing – no other tenants – and a little larger than the one on Racetrack. It will have about 40 employees, 30 seats inside and a drive-up window. Outside seating, he added, “is up in the air.”
Construction on a third Dunkin’ Donuts, on Washington Road in Peters Township, is far along. It could open in the next month to six weeks. A Washington County resident will be the manager of each of these locations, Braun said.
The county did not have a Dunkin’ restaurant until one opened in Canonsburg in May 2015. Within 18 months, Washington may have four.
Greene County may be in line for its first.
“Waynesburg will definitely see a Dunkin’ Donuts someday,” Braun said, adding, “I don’t know when.”
For more than 60 years, Chuck Wagon Restaurant has sat on a rise near Richeyville. It is a breakfast destination from early morning to mid-afternoon, and has been a longtime haven for locals and kids skipping school.
Now the iconic eatery is for sale – officially. Owner Linda Nesto listed the restaurant about a month ago through Patricia Wright of Century 21 Frontier Realty.
Chuck Wagon, at 680 National Pike in Centerville Borough, serves breakfast and lunch daily – from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 6 to 2 Sunday.
Three teachers launched the restaurant in the early 1950s. Nesto and her family bought it in 1984.
Heather Graytok has had a successful homecoming. The Washington County native has been the managing partner of LongHorn Steakhouse since it opened in the Old Mill shopping complex in November 2014. Then recently, she achieved Diamond Club status with her parent company, Darden Restaurants.
She is one of 24 managing partners from 480-plus LongHorn restaurants in North America to be in the Diamond Club. This is the second time Graytok has earned this honor, which recognizes commitment to guests, team members and the community.
• Edgar A. Boone is a new primary care physician at Senior LIFE Uniontown. Boone had a private practice in Herminie, Westmoreland County, for 21 years, and practiced at Mount Pleasant Main Street Medical, Excela Health, for the past three. He will join Rebecca Stumpf as a primary care physician.
• Scott Helfrich, who formerly served at California University of Pennsylvania, is the new director of housing and residential programs at Millersville University, Lancaster County. He has a quarter-century of experience at nine institutions, the majority of it as a housing and residence life professional at Cal U., the University of Pittsburgh and Bloomsburg University.
• Two local franchises were represented at the 47th annual SERVPRO Convention in Las Vegas June 26-30. Mark and Lynn Leyenaar of SERVPRO of North Washington County, and James M. and Nikki J. Knopp of SERVPRO of South Washington County attended the event, which featured workshops, networking and keynote presentations.
• Fox’s Pizza Den has opened at 1574 Smith Township State Road, Burgettstown.