Shopping center proposal advances
Developers took another step toward transforming the Sharp’s Furniture property into a strip shopping center.
Florida-based Win Development received approval from the South Strabane Township supervisors last week to develop the property on and near 360 Washington Road, where Sharp’s operated for 46 years before closing in August.
Jerry Klodowski, project manager for GAI Consultants of Southpointe, received final land-development approval at the supervisors’ meeting last week. His engineering and environmental consulting firm represents Win.
Win’s next move, township Manager John Stickle said, is to apply for a building permit.
Summer Ewing of Win Development said last fall “a strip center with a couple of national tenants” would be constructed just off, and perpendicular to, Route 19 below the Trinity Point retail complex.
The project does not have a name, but is known as MF Washington LLC.
MF Washington purchased the 3.59-acre property for $2,650,000, according to a deed recorded Sept. 15 in the Washington County Recorder of Deeds office.
Summer’s father, Owen C. Ewing, was listed as the operations manager of MF Washington.
Belleair Beach on Florida’s Gulf Coast was identified as his base of operation.
Building permit or not, construction on the new center cannot begin until the site is cleared.
The massive Sharp’s building was razed during the winter, but much rubble remains.
“They’re still clearing the demolition at Sharp’s,” Stickle said. “It may take another week or two.”
Contacted by telephone Monday, Summer Ewing said “at this time, there is not much to report” about the project. She said work will be done in two phases, beginning with “the front portion” near Washington Road.
She declined to name names, retail-wise, saying “we’re still working on our tenant mix. We’re in talks with many of them.” The Observer-Reporter, however, reported Dec. 1 that Aspen Dental had committed to the project.
For three generations and nearly a century, the Sharp family operated the furniture store known for its elegant pieces.
Charles L. Sharp started the business in 1917, on West Chestnut Street in downtown Washington across from Immaculate Conception Church. At the time, it was one of five family-owned furniture stores on West Chestnut.
He and a brother, Boyd, built a bigger store downtown in 1925, and the business remained there until 1969, when the family moved it to South Strabane.
Sibyl Sharp Ream and her husband, Dave, ran the business for 12 years before selling it over the summer.