Wegmans Makes First Pitch to Chapel Hill Town Council

The Town of Chapel Hill is moving forward with plans to add Wegmans to its list of local supermarkets and grocery stores.

Representatives from Wegmans, the town and the development company pursuing the partnership presented the concept plan to the Town Council Monday Night.

Wegmans is set to be built on Fordham Boulevard at the current site of Performance Auto Mall, which is scheduled to move to Durham next summer.

“We’ve seen almost 2,300 jobs in that immediate area announce that they are no longer going to be called Orange County or Chapel Hill businesses and would be moving away from us. What do we do about that,” asked Steve Brantley, director of the Orange County Economic Development office.

He says Wegmans could bring some of the jobs back that Chapel Hill is currently losing, “185 full-time jobs with healthcare and other benefits through all initial 5 years of the project, 250-413 part-time jobs, increasing over time.

“That equates to, on average, 350 full-time equivalent jobs for our community.”

Aside from both full-time and part-time jobs, Brantley says Wegmans is known for bringing shoppers who spend on average three hours in the store during a shopping trip. Wegmans proposed for a large parking lot to accommodate for the nearly 150 employees working at a given time and the large volume of expected shoppers.

Ben Hitchings is the Director of Planning and Development Services for Chapel Hill. He says comments from the Community Design Commission include that Wegmans should also incorporate creative designs, including ones that will cater to pedestrian shoppers.

“Ensuring that there is safe pedestrian circulation on the site is important. Another comment from the CDC was they’d like to see a more unique architecture as opposed to the Wegmans trademark design.”

But Councilwoman Maria Palmer says she’s concerned about such a large parking lot. She says any space in Chapel Hill should be utilized in multiple ways, if possible.

“Schools use their parking lots in the evening when there’s no school for recreation and for community neighborhood soccer leagues. And I’m just wondering if we can’t start doing that and if y’all would be amenable to thinking about this so we can plan ahead and work with our parks and recreation department.”

The council asked that Wegmans come back with a more in-depth plan, justifying the need for a large lot.

But large surface parking lot or not, Brantley says what’s most important is what Wegmans will bring to Chapel Hill – including shoppers from multiple counties, an increased tax base and community and charity efforts.

“This company puts $400,000 a year on average to each local community in terms of supporting both general philanthropy and food banks, homeless shelters and things of that nature.”

Wegmans can take this initial feedback when forming an official application.

Wegmans Makes First Pitch to Chapel Hill Town Council

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