Wawa is making plans for a third location in Centre County. Here’s what we know so far
Wawa is making plans to construct a third location in Centre County — and it’s aiming to breathe new life into a closed gas station in the process, according to public documents from earlier this month.
Wawa is looking to construct a 6,049-square-foot store with eight fuel pumps and a canopy in Potter Township, near Centre Hall, at the former site of Snappy’s, which closed in September 2023. Each pump can simultaneously fuel two vehicles.
News of Wawa’s latest intentions became public around Nov. 6, when Potter Township’s board of supervisors unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the municipality and the developer for Wawa (BCB Centre Hall LLC). The MOU will essentially serve as a formal agreement, where the developer will reimburse the township for costs associated with processing, inspecting and approving the Wawa plan.
Typical zoning and regulatory hurdles still remain, and officials will need to formally approve a final land development plan before Wawa can break ground.
No timeline has yet been released. A message to Wawa was not immediately returned Friday.
In the proposed development plan, which the CDT inspected Friday at the township office, 57 parking spaces are proposed at the location. Access would be from both Earlystown Road and Old Fort Road.
The convenience store would be wrapped in a manufactured stone veneer with a Dutch Seam metal roof. And the property would also include underground fuel storage tanks, an air station and a trash corral.
The “Wawa at Old Fort” — which is how it’s labeled in the development plan — could be the third future Wawa location in Centre County. The first is the location on Benner Pike, which was announced in March 2023 and has not yet broken ground. The second is in Ferguson Township near Champs Sports Grill, a plan that became public in August 2023 and has not yet been approved.
It’s not clear when Centre County’s first Wawa might open, but the plans in and around Happy Valley are all part of a larger expansion mission by Wawa. The Philadelphia-based company currently boasts just over 1,000 stores and is looking to have 1,800 by 2030 — by expanding in the Midwest, South and in central Pennsylvania. CEO Chris Gheysens called it “the most aggressive growth” in Wawa’s 60-year history, according to C-Store Dive, a news outlet focused on the convenience store industry.
In April, Wawa announced it was aiming to open 40 new locations in central Pennsylvania by 2030. It hopes to open 5-7 stores every year. However, Centre County was not among the counties listed when discussing projected openings in 2025. (Up to 12 stores are expected to open next year in Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lycoming, Northumberland, Union and York counties.)
In that same announcement, Wawa said it anticipated spending $7 million to build each store in central Pa. and believed about 35 employees would work at each location.
