Supermarket Chain Coming To Delco, Signing Lease For Long-Empty Storefront

HAVERTOWN, PA — Sprouts Farmers Market, a national supermarket chain built around natural and organic foods, has signed a lease to open a store in Havertown.

The supermarket will anchor Llanerch Shopping Center in the space long occupied by an Amazon Fresh grocery store that never opened.

Sprouts expects to open in the first quarter of next year, a company spokesperson told Patch.

The 29,462-square-foot storefront occupies over 70 percent of the shopping center's commercial footprint. But there hasn't been an operating business there since LA Fitness closed a year or two before the COVID-19 pandemic, says Fred Snow, president of Brandolini Companies, which operates the shopping center.

Shortly after, Amazon Fresh signed a lease for the space. Amazon built out the store. But weeks before it was set to open, the company had second thoughts.

Despite never opening, Amazon continued renting the space for about five years. But earlier this year, the company announced plans to close all Fresh stores.

The decision opened dialog for Amazon to later terminate its lease, Snow told Patch.

"We had no control over them because they were under lease and paying rent," Snow said. "So we just sat back and waited until they decided to abandon the Amazon Fresh concept altogether."

In came Sprouts, which has opened several Philadelphia-area supermarkets in recent years. This will be the national chain's first store in Delaware County.

Llanerch Shopping Center is located at 401 West Chester Pike.