Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Walgreens to replace Westmoreland fixture
By C.M. Mortimer
May 31, 2007

A Westmoreland County landmark, Chesterfield's Restaurant & Lounge, located on Route 30 in North Huntingdon, is being sold to Walnut Capital Development, a Pittsburgh development group.
Walnut Capital plans to develop a 14,465 square-foot Walgreens Drug Store and a Starbucks coffee shop on the 2.6-acre site, according to papers filed with the North Huntingdon Planning & Zoning office.

Anthony Dolan, a principal at Walnut Capital, confirmed Wednesday the company has an agreement to buy the property and demolish the building once the deal is completed.

He declined comment about specific plans for the site, but acknowledged that a site plan submitted to the township show plans for the pharmacy and coffee outlet.

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"North Huntingdon is a growing community, and we are working with some retailers who would like to have a presence there. We have a good working relationship with Walgreens as we do with Starbucks," Dolan said.
Walnut Capital already has been involved in plans to develop a number of new locations for the Walgreens chain, which is in the midst of a major expansion in Western Pennsylvania.

Those include Lincoln Place, a retail complex planned for the site of the current headquarters of the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County along Route 30 in Hempfield, west of Greensburg.

A scheduled news conference Wednesday morning at Chesterfield's to discuss details was postponed indefinitely.

"My property is presently under agreement with Walnut Capital ... and I am not at liberty to discuss the transaction," said owner Barbara Braun, in a statement released yesterday.

Braun said Chesterfield's, which has been in business for 24 years, remains open for banquets, parties and special events. Braun also said the lounge is open for business Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Braun declined to comment on her reasons for the sale of the business.

The restaurant was previously known as the Ben Gross Supper Club, and played host to popular dinner theater, featuring variety and comedy shows by Don Brockett and Barbara Russell, and Father Tom Brown. The theater room had been dark for several years before Chesterfield's revived the entertainment form on a trial basis in 1991.

Braun and her late husband, John F. "Jack" Braun, a one-time United States Chef of the Year, purchased the building in June 1986 from Ivan Jerrold Gross and Marjorie Gross, his wife, for $678,625, according to documents in the Westmoreland County recorder of deeds office. John F. Braun died in May 2003.

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