North Journal
Atria's, Rite Aid proposed along Route 8
Thursday, April 21, 2005

An Atria's Restaurant & Tavern and a Rite Aid drug store could soon be coming to Richland Township.

The township's planning commission has forwarded plans by Walnut Capital for Orchard Park Plaza retail center to be located at the corner of Route 8 and Ewalt Road.

The plaza would also have almost an 12,000 square feet of retail space.

Rite Aid will be a free-standing building on the southern portion of the site, closest to Ewalt Road.

The one-story, 14,500-square-foot building will be constructed entirely out of brick and will have a corner entry that maximizes convenient parking, said Rite Aid architects.

The retail plaza is expected to become the home to a variety of businesses.

It will be a single-story and designed in a way that architecturally matches Rite Aid to create a more integrated site.

Atria's will be on the northern end of the retail building with its own access.

The restaurant will be approximately 5,500 square feet and will have an outdoor seating and its own individual architectural identity. However, the design will be unified with the rest of the plaza to create a visually pleasing site.

Orchard Park Plaza will have more than 200 parking places and will be accessible from both Route 8 and Ewalt Road.

Developers say this is an ideal location for retail development because it is sandwiched between Richland Mall, which will soon have a Wal-Mart Super Center and Lowe's Home Improvement store, and Northtowne Square, home to a large Giant Eagle.

Additionally, a traffic study showed the signalized intersection of Route 8 and Ewalt Road gets an average of 23,000 vehicles per day.

The site on which Orchard Park Plaza is slated for construction first had to be consolidated, subdivided and rezoned.

The development will front both Route 8 and Ewalt Road but does not extend all the way to the corner of the two roadways.

The property hooks around the existing car dealership, Richland Motor Mall, which will remain intact and separate from the plaza.

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