The Wegmans supermarket under construction on Corporate Park Drive in Harrison remains on track to open this fall although the exact opening date remains undecided, a Wegmans spokesperson told the Business Journal today.
The chain originally had planned for the store to open on June 7. Then, COVID-19 interfered. In early March, it was announced that the opening would have to be postponed and it wasn’t until recently that a time frame of sometime in the fall appeared likely. With restrictions on the construction industry now lifted by the Mid-Hudson Region of New York yesterday entering Phase One of the reopening process, a fall opening becomes realistic.
The 121,000-square-foot facility is being built on a 20-acre site.
Wegmans bought the property for $26.5 million from Normandy Real Estate Partners. The Harrison store is one of three new Wegmans stores to have their development schedules disrupted by the outbreak. The other projects are in Morrisville, North Carolina, and Tysons Corner, Virginia.
In a statement, Wegmans said, “Every year, one of the things we look forward to most is opening our new stores and the opportunity to get to know and serve our newest communities. Faced with the coronavirus pandemic, the opportunity to serve the needs of these communities is more important than ever, and we are committed to opening the three stores planned for this year.”
Wegmans said that by committing to only a targeted time frame for opening right now it will “allow us to keep our employees and customers safe, and also give us flexibility to open our doors as soon as possible.”
The company said when the stores do open, it will be limiting the number of customers inside at any given time to ensure it is able to maintain safe social distancing.
“With these measures in place, we ask for your patience and understanding, as you may need to wait in line to enter the store,” Wegmans said. “We are excited to share that all three stores will open with online ordering via curbside pickup and delivery, and we encourage customers to take advantage of these services.”
Wegmans has 101 stores: 47 in New York, 18 in Pennsylvania, 9 in New Jersey, 12 in Virginia, 8 in Maryland, 6 in Massachusetts, and 1 in North Carolina. It has approximately 50,000 employees and in 2019 its sales were $9.7 billion. The company was founded in 1916 and is headquartered in Rochester.
Its employee hiring office at 1133 Westchester Ave. in White Plains, which is being used in staffing the Harrison store, had openings in a dozen job categories listed this morning.
