Ikea has opened its first Delaware County location, though it doesn’t look like its massive stores in Conshohocken and South Philly.
The home design company’s “plan and order point” in Media opened Wednesday. At less than 4,000 square feet, the outpost is a fraction of the size of its typical stores, with square footage in the hundreds of thousands.
Ikea, which has its U.S. headquarters in Conshohocken, said in a statement this fall that the location would provide design consultation services for more complex projects like kitchens, bedrooms, and bathrooms. But the space doesn’t contain inventory. Instead, customers can order items for delivery or on-site pickup.
For some Delaware County residents, the new location means “no more trekking through that notorious I-476 ‘Blue Route’ traffic” to get to the Conshohocken or South Philly stores, Ikea U.S. market manager George Holtkamp said in an October statement.
But if those customers get a craving for the popular Ikea meatballs, they’ll still have to make the longer trip, as the Media site does not have an in-store Swedish bistro.
People worked in the cafeteria of the 300,000-square-foot Ikea in South Philly in 2022.
Ikea has been adding more locations after its U.S. arm reported $5.3 billion in sales last year, the majority of which were made in-person. Over the same period, about 61 million people visited its physical stores, while more than 457 million people browsed the website.
In Media, Ikea joins Michaels, TJ Maxx, Kohl’s, Boscov’s, and a slate of other stores that occupy the 830,000-square-foot retail section of the Promenade at Granite Run. The complex exemplifies how struggling malls can be reborn.
After the Granite Run Mall closed in 2015, BET Investments spent more than $100 million to demolish the building and build the open-air town center in its place, according to president Michael Markman. Along with an array of retailers, the complex now contains 400 luxury apartments, as well as several restaurants and medical offices.
An aerial photo shows the Promenade at Granite Run in June 2022.
Markman said in April that the retail portion of the complex is almost fully leased.
“Its only gotten better since we originally tenanted it,” Markman said at the time. “We signed a Nordstrom Rack. We signed a small-scale Ikea.”
A new airport lounge is landing soon in Philadelphia.
Escape Lounges is set to open a location at the Philadelphia International Airport later this year, according to MarketPlace PHL, which manages the airport’s concessions. The lounges run on a pay-per-visit model, with food and drink included, and do not require customers to have a certain credit card.
Escape’s 1,500-square-foot space in Terminal D will serve food and drinks, according to MarketPlace PHL, and include a bar and other seating areas that overlook the runways.
The U.K.-based Escape Lounges operates 20 U.S. locations, including Syracuse and Providence, R.I. The lounges are open to all travelers within three hours of their departing flights, according to the company’s website.
Someone looks at the arrivals and departures board at Philadelphia International Airport in April.
Prices fall between $45 and $65 per person for walk-ups, while customers who pre-book online can get reduced rates starting at $32. Complimentary access is available for American Express cardholders.
The cost includes food and drink, including wine, beer, and spirits, according to Escape. Customers also get private Wi-Fi, charging ports and outlets, printing and copy services, and PressReader, which provides digital access to more than 7,000 newspapers and magazines.
The news comes at a time when airport lounges have become more accessible than ever — and often more crowded. A growing number of credit cards offer lounge access, and travelers without the required cards can buy day passes to most spots.
The bar at the American Airlines Flagship Lounge at Philadelphia International Airport.
American Express and British Airways also operate lounges in Terminal A-West, from which many international flights depart.
The airport also has a United Club between Terminals C and D, and Delta Sky Club between Terminals D and E, as well as private Minute Suites between Terminals A and B.
Travelers walk through Philadelphia International Airport in April.
While the total number of 2025 passengers dropped slightly from the prior year, the airport saw a 7.5% increase in international travelers, executives said.
It was also the first time since before the pandemic that the airport recorded two consecutive years with more than 30 million annual passengers.
But the pharmacy chain’s distinct facade still dots the landscape — in suburban shopping centers, on the corners of congested intersections, sometimes even smack dab in the middle of city blocks.
Some of these buildings are still vacant, surrounded by overgrown grass and empty parking lots. Others are getting new life as dollar stores, medical clinics, daycares, Spirit Halloweens, and a Rally House sports retailer.
A former Rite Aid (left, rear) and former Wawa (right) sat empty in Collingswood in June.
The 8,000- to 16,000-square-foot shells are ideal for only so many tenants, real estate experts have said, and it is not unusual for these kinds of properties to take several months or more to lease.
Here is a look at what’s happening at a few local zombie Rite Aids:
South Jersey Rite Aids are becoming fitness centers
A former Rite Aid in Blackwood, Camden County, has been a gym for more than a year, and its owners soon plan to open a second location at another old Rite Aid in Cherry Hill.
Nick Bennett, CEO of the Bunker Fitness Center, said the owner of the Blackwood Rite Aid building approached him after seeing the gym’s content on TikTok. At the time, Bennett said, the gym was outgrowing its 3,000-square-foot space in Franklinville, Gloucester County.
When he went to see the 13,000-square-foot former Rite Aid in Blackwood, he said, it had already been demolished inside.
“It was just wide open,” Bennett said. “That floor plan works for our business model because gyms are open. You don’t really need to put up walls.”
Steve Cristelli works out at the Bunker Fitness Center in Blackwood.
Another plus, he said: Pharmacies have rows of refrigerators, which require electrical outlets, and the Bunker crew could use those outlets to plug in workout equipment.
The old Rite Aid on Black Horse Pike needed “very little” work, just paint and rubber floors, Bennett said, and was easily transformed into the exercise and recovery space he had envisioned. The gym opened in 2025.
“We’re smashing it,” Bennett said, with thousands of members who pay between $49 and $59 a month for the 24/7 gym, which has cardio and strength machines, weights, a sauna, and a cold plunge. He declined to provide specific sales or membership figures for competitive reasons.
The Bunker Fitness Center operates inside a former Rite Aid in Blackwood.
But Bennett said the business is doing so well that it is expanding into another former Rite Aid, 12 miles away in Cherry Hill with franchisee Jack Prendergast.
That 10,000-square-foot pharmacy shell at Brace and Kresson Roads closed more recently and needs a bit more work inside, Bennett said. When they signed the lease, he said, it “looked like a Rite Aid.”
Bennett said he and Prendergast are demolishing the interior, aiming for a September opening.
In Delco, a Rite Aid could become a township’s first car wash
The former Rite Aid in Newtown Square may get new life as a car wash.
The store at West Chester Pike and St. Alban’s Circle closed last year. In February El Car Wash, a Florida-based chain looking to expand into Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, applied to open there, said Newtown Township Solicitor Rich Sokorai.
On its website, El Car Wash lists several other Philly-area locations as “coming soon,” including Cherry Hill, Drexel Hill, Feasterville, and Maple Shade.
The Newtown Square Rite Aid operated a drive-through, Sokorai said, and drive-throughs are permitted in that commercial zone. After a June meeting, the township zoning hearing board is considering whether to permit the car wash, with a decision expected in the coming weeks.
A Rite Aid with a “store closing” sign last summer.
If approved, it would be the only car wash in Newtown Township, the solicitor said.
Residents of the neighborhood behind the old Rite Aid have expressed concerns to local officials, Sokorai said, “because they fear traffic.”
Others have said they are looking forward to a new business moving into the vacant space on a prime corner, Sokorai said. Even before the Rite Aid closed last summer, its shelves were often empty, the solicitor said, and “it was dying a slow death.”
Temple University buys another old Rite Aid
Temple “T” flags fly on North Broad Street.
Temple University recently bought a second former Rite Aid on North Broad Street.
The school recently closed on the old Rite Aid building on the 2100 block of North Broad for $9.25 million, according to spokesperson Stephen Orbanek. He said ArchWell Health, which operates a primary-care clinic for seniors there, will remain the tenant.
“This property’s location, directly across the street from James S. White Residence Hall, supports the priorities of our campus safety and physical environment plan,” Orbanek said.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to indicate that Temple Health plans to open neurology offices at the previously acquired Rite Aid building.
Another Sprouts Farmers Market is coming soon to South Jersey.
The Sprouts in Washington Township is set to open Aug. 28, the company announced Tuesday in a statement.
The 23,000-square-foot organic grocery store is under construction on Egg Harbor Road in Sewell, with an attached 6,400-square-foot storefront for lease, according to marketing materials for the new development.
Sprouts plans to bring on about 90 full- and part-time employees, with hiring events scheduled next week for Tuesday and Wednesday at the Double Tree by Hilton in Cherry Hill.
This Sprouts in South Philadelphia opened in 2018.
The Washington Township location will be the Phoenix-based chain’s fourth in South Jersey. The grocer, which specializes in organic, gluten-free, and plant-based products, also has stores in Haddon Township, Marlton, and West Deptford.
Across the river, the company operates four Philadelphia locations, including Roosevelt Mall in the Northeast and the new Rivermark complex in Northern Liberties, as well as two Montgomery County stores in Upper Dublin and Montgomeryville.
The Cherry Hill Mall is soon set to welcome five new stores that have committed to more than 25,000 square feet of retail space at the South Jersey mall.
The additions include Aritzia, the viral women’s clothing brand, which is set to open a store at the 1.3 million-square-foot Camden County mall by spring 2027. The complex is also adding legacy brands such as Timberland and True Religion, according to executives with PREIT, which owns the mall.
“Retailers at this level are choosing their next locations very carefully right now, and the fact that six of them chose Cherry Hill Mall in the same leasing period speaks volumes,” Paula Charles, PREIT’s senior vice president of leasing, said in a statement.
“For shoppers, it means more of the brands they want in one place and an experience that keeps getting better every time they visit,” Charles added.
One of dozens of Dick’s House of Sport outposts, it will be represent “the largest single-tenant addition to Cherry Hill Mall in more than a decade,” PREIT executives said.
The new retailers will also join Crocs, which last month opened a 2,000-square-foot store near the future Dick’s House of Sport, and DoneRight Doner Kebab, a fast-casual Mediterranean food spot that mall executives said will open later this summerin the food court.
People walk by a new store, Pop Mart, at Cherry Hill Mall on Black Friday 2025.
But higher-end complexes like Cherry Hill and King of Prussia seem to be thriving. King of Prussia Mall, in Montgomery County, also just announced a slate of new openings.
Here’s what to know about the new shops coming soon to the Cherry Hill Mall:
Timberland: The boots and outdoor-wear company is set to open an 1,800-square-foot store later this summer. It will be near Dick’s House of Sport.
Indochino: The custom-suit-maker is set to open a 1,200-square-foot store before the 2026 holiday season. It will be off the Grand Court, near American Eagle and Pop Mart.
Aritzia: Set to occupy more than 20,000 square feet in the central Grand Court, its space will include not only a clothing store but also an A-OK Cafe, the brand’s in-house coffee shop. It is on track to open in spring 2027.
True Religion: The denim company is set to open a 2,230-square-foot store sometime early next year near Dick’s House of Sport.
Also at the mall, Pandora and Spencer’s recently moved into larger storefronts, and Lululemon is set to relocate into an expanded space in the Grand Court before the 2026 holiday season.
The King of Prussia Mall is set to get several new shops and restaurants in the coming months.
As some other retail centers struggle, die, and transform, the massive Montgomery County complex has remained a thriving shopping destination, with a wide array of retailers, dining options, and experiential concepts.
Candyland Adventure: The indoor playground and kids entertainment center, which already has a Springfield location, plans to open another location near Primark this winter, according to Candyland’s Facebook page.
Los Chicos Mexican Grill: The restaurant is set to open at a yet-to-be-released location.
The Pandora store will also move from the Court to the Plaza, and the David Yurman store will undergo a facelift. David Yurman will open a temporary boutique near Neiman Marcus while its permanent location is renovated.
Adidas: The sportswear company’s new location, near Eataly, includes a customization lab, where customers can personalize jerseys or put custom designs on sneakers.
Nespresso: The boutique sells coffee makers and espresso machines, fancy milk frothers, and more from its new outpost near the Apple store.
Faherty: The casual, coastal-style clothing brand has a new store near Nordstrom.
A long-empty retail space in Havertown is set to become a Sprouts Farmers Market.
The organic grocery chain has signed a lease for a 29,500-square-foot store in the Llanerch Shopping Center on the 400 block of West Chester Pike, according to Fred Snow, president of Brandolini Cos., which owns the complex.
David McGlinchey, chief development officer of Sprouts, confirmed in a statement that the chain signed a lease at the site and is planning for an early 2027 opening.
Sprouts is taking over a parcel that Amazon Fresh had rented for the past six years but never opened as a grocery store, Snow said. In February, the tech conglomerate abruptly closed all its physical Amazon Fresh locations, providing an opportunity for the landlord to terminate its lease in Havertown, Snow said.
“It’s never really been vacant very long, but it’s looked vacant,” Snow said of the space, which was previously occupied by an LA Fitness that relocated before the pandemic.
Once the property became available earlier this year, Snow said, Sprouts was “very aggressive,” and showed great interest in moving into such a densely populated, well-to-do area of Delaware County.
In 10 square miles, Haverford Township has nearly 51,000 residents, with a median household income of more than $130,000, according to U.S. Census data. The township is surrounded by other populous, affluent suburbs, including Lower Merion and Radnor.
The Havertown store is primed to be Sprouts’ first location in Philadelphia’s Western suburbs.
A view inside the Sprouts in South Philadelphia, as seen in 2018.
“We’re just excited that they are going to provide offerings that aren’t in the area right now,” Snow said.
Sprouts markets sell organic, gluten-free, and plant-based products, including private-label items, as well as vitamins, supplements, natural toiletries, and bulk nuts, coffee, and baking ingredients.
Sprouts now operates two Montgomery County stores in Upper Dublin and Montgomeryville; three South Jersey outposts in Haddon Township, Marlton, and West Deptford; and four city locations, including Roosevelt Mall in the Northeast and the new Rivermark complex in Northern Liberties.
Sprouts has more local spots in the works, too, with stores under construction in Limerick and Washington Township.
The extensive supplement section at Sprouts in South Philadelphia, as seen in 2018
Sprouts plans to open at least 40 stores by the end of 2026, for a total of more than 500 markets nationwide, according to the report.
“We’re seeing a great reaction as we enter new communities,” CEO Jack Sinclair said on the recent earnings call. “We’re sharpening site selection as we scale, expanding access to healthy foods.”
Yet some stores have struggled. After the Amazon Fresh shutdown in February, Grocery Outlet bargain market closed dozens of stores, including eight in the Philadelphia area.
Sprouts executives said on the earnings call that they’re aware of customers’ financial pressures and are taking steps to make their products more affordable. They mentioned store promotions like $5 Sushi Wednesday, and said they recently reduced prices on some basics like coffee, which has become exorbitantly expensive amidextreme weather andglobal conflict.
“We take the responsibility for affordability really seriously,” Sinclair said. “There’s a real opportunity for us to help people live and eat better.”
Chester County’s only enclosed mall will soon shut its doors for good.
After five decades as a retail hub, the nearly 1-million-square-foot Exton Square Mall is set to close Tuesday, June 30, according to mall owner Abrams Realty & Development. The Elkins Park-based company has been mired in a legal dispute with local officials over its redevelopment.
Once a bustling destination that sparked a commercial boom in Exton, the complex has been languishing for years with a desolate interior and only a handful of stores.
Peter Abrams said his firm had no choice but to shutter the mall.
“Operating the interior of the property has become untenable due to deteriorating conditions and rising utility costs,” he said in a statement.
A handful of shoppers walk into the Exton Square Mall in November.
The Boscov’s, Main Line Health offices, and Round 1 entertainment venue will remain open.
Brian Dunn, chair of the West Whiteland Township Board of Supervisors, declined to comment on the mall’s closure, citing the ongoing litigation.
Abrams, who bought the mall from PREIT for more than $34 million, wants to transform the site into a mixed-use complex with hundreds of townhouses, rental apartments, a 55+ community, and a town center with shops, restaurants, medical offices, and green space.
This fall, despite the planning commission’s recommendation, Dunn and fellow Township Supervisor Rajesh Kumbhardare rejected Abrams’ proposal over sewer, traffic, and density concerns. Abrams then sued the supervisors in an attempt to reverse their decision, saying the plan meets the township’s zoning requirements.
Litigation between Abrams and the supervisors was ongoing as of Wednesday, according to the company, which wants to complete the project by 2028.
The Exton Square Mall opened in 1973 with more than 100 stores, including a Strawbridge & Clothier.
The mall’s construction would prove a harbinger of Exton’s commercialization. “Developers seem bent on heaving this lazy rural area into the mainstream of metropolitan Philadelphia,” The Inquirer reported in 1973.
In the 1990s, the Exton Bypass made the area easier to access from the city and other suburbs. And by the 2000s, more retail complexes, including the Main Street at Exton town center, had opened near Exton Square Mall, which also underwent an expansion.
The Exton Square Mall is shown in 2022, when tenants were already starting to dwindle.
The community has seen a subsequent rise in residential development, with millennials and baby boomers fueling demand for high-end, low-maintenance living. In the past five years, about 3,000 luxury apartments and townhouses have been built in the 13-square-mile township, supervisor Kumbhardare said this fall, and each new complex is at least 90% occupied.
On Tuesday, as word spread about the mall’s closing date, one user posted a video on Facebook with the caption: “It’s official. They’re tearing down the Exton Square Mall, and with it, my entire childhood.”
“They can tear the building down, but they can’t take away the memories of buying graphic tees at Wet Seal and CD shopping at FYE. RIP.”
In the post-pandemic hybrid-work environment, Philadelphia office space remains cheaper than most other major metro areas, according to a new report from the online real estate platform Commercial Cafe.
Asking rents for Philly offices were $31.26 per square foot on average as of May, the report found. That makes Philadelphia the only major market in the Northeast below the national average of $33.61 per square foot.
Relative to other major U.S. markets, only Chicago, Houston, and Phoenix recorded lower average asking rents.
Elsewhere in the Northeast, Manhattan averaged the most expensive asking rents at more than $69 per square foot, according to the report. Boston’s asking rents were around $44 and New Jersey’s were more than $35.
Philadelphia’s 18.4% office vacancy rate, meanwhile, was slightly higher than the other Northeast markets, as well as the national average of 17.6%, according to the report.
The analysis, released last week, reflected the broader challenges that all office markets are up against. In Philadelphia and elsewhere, the office landscape has shrunk since the pandemic, with many employers downsizing their space amid the rise of hybrid work.
Some Center City office buildings have plummeted in value and are now becoming apartment complexes. Among them: The iconic Wanamaker Building and Centre Square, better known as the “Clothespin building” for the sculpture outside it.
Between January and May, $220 million in office sales were recorded in Philadelphia, according to the Commercial Cafe report, and $387 million in New Jersey. In the Garden State, 630,000 square feet of offices were under construction, found the report, which did not have under-construction data for Philadelphia.
Peter Kolaczynski, the director of Yardi Research, helped compile the report, and noted the trend toward office reuse.
“The destruction of value that we have discussed for years is showing through in the sales data,” Kolaczynski said in a statement. “With this decrease cost in acquisition comes opportunity — whether that is conversions to apartments, repositioning to best-in-class office and coworking, or full-on redevelopment and revitalization projects.”
As Brixmor Property Group executives began transforming the Roosevelt Mall, they briefly debated whether to change the name.
After all, the 60-year-old Northeast Philly shopping center is undergoing a more than $70 million makeover that promises to bring it into the modern age with new tenants, upgraded facades, and a better layout.
As Brixmor executives walked around the 620,000-square-foot complex on a recent day, they said they already see the outdoor mall becoming a community hub — with a gym, an organic grocer, and new fast-casual dining options.
Despite these changes, they have decided the Roosevelt Mall should not be rebranded.
“It’s an iconic name,” said David Vender, Brixmor Property Group’s executive vice president for the north region, who is based in Conshohocken. “People know it as a landmark.”
Brixmor operates about 350 shopping centers nationwide, but some of its top executives — including new CEO Brian Finnegan, who grew up in Roxborough — have soft spots for Philly, forged by personal or family connections to the region.
A new Delco sign is shown at Pilgrim Gardens in Drexel Hill on June 16.
And they said their connection to the community around the Roosevelt Mall has only grown stronger since last year’s plane crash, which killed eight people, injured two dozen, damaged nearby homes, and left an 8-foot-deep crater in front of the mall.
Even before the tragedy, they said, they considered how their local redevelopments affected the Philly-area residents who shop, eat, and drive by their centers every day.
At the Roosevelt Mall — which sits on 36 acres between Cottman Avenue, Roosevelt Boulevard, and Bustleton Avenue — these decisions have begun to pay off.
In the last year, the center logged 6.3 million visits, a 5% year-over-year increase and a 19% jump when compared with the 12 months before Sprouts Farmers Market’s 2024 opening, according to company executives.
Occupancy was over 98% this spring, they said, and customers spend about 35 minutes there on average, on par with the national average for all Brixmor complexes.
When you’re able to bring together “higher-quality food and beverage, fitness, service … then you’re also able to attract more elevated retail” stores, said Finnegan, noting that Ulta Beauty and Victoria’s Secret are among the tenants signed on for the next phase of the Roosevelt Mall’s redevelopment.
Brian Finnegan, CEO and president, at Brixmor Property Group, at the Roosevelt Mall in Northeast Philadelphia.
Achieving the tenant mix of a modern shopping center
When the Roosevelt Mall opened in 1964, its main promenade was referred to as “Chestnut Street Northeast,” with several outposts of Center City clothing stores, according to an Inquirer article from the time.
The shopping center had apparel shops, such as Baker Shoes and Famous Maid, as well as “the Cavalier, a cafeteria-style restaurant with a game room and a retail bakery,” The Inquirer reported. It was anchored by an S. Klein’s discount department store.
The Roosevelt Mall was built as part of the Roosevelt Boulevard shopping complex, bordered by Cottman and Castor Avenues. The larger development — which also had Gimbels and Lit Bros. department stores — was called the country’s largest “in-town” shopping center at the time.
Roosevelt Mall in Northeast Philadelphia is shown in earlier days, long before Brixmor Property Group remodeled the property.
They said they have intentionally brought in tenants that customers may visit multiple times a week and added more pedestrian walkways, open-air plazas, and outdoor seating.
“Historically, shopping centers were very utilitarian, and now they’re really becoming more community assets, so we’re really careful about our merchandising mix,” said Ryan Guheen, Brixmor’s senior vice president of development.
Roosevelt Mall in Northeast Philadelphia is shown in earlier days, long before Brixmor Property Group remodeled the property.
The latest redevelopment push began around 2020, when Brixmor opened an LA Fitness outpost on the site of a former Turf Club off-track betting venue, near a new Oak Street Health clinic.
Since then, the company has constructed buildings in underused sections of the parking lot and filled them with popular chain eateries like Raising Cane’s chicken; the American-Chinese food spot Panda Express; and Tous les Jours, a Korean-French bakery and coffee shop.
Annual customer visits to Roosvelt Mall have increased 13% since Sprouts organic grocer opened there in 2024.
The 37,000-square-foot under-construction building, set to house a Victoria’s Secret and an Ulta, will also include fast-casual staples like Shake Shack and Cava, which serves Mediterranean bowls and pitas.
Tenants like these, Guheen said, provide “multiple opportunities for people to stay on property to shop retail, get their workout in, go to the bakery, get a coffee.”
Some mall retailers have found homes in shopping centers
As Brixmor executives diversify the tenant mix at their shopping centers, they say they do not see retail stores going extinct.
Elsewhere in the Northeast, the Franklin Mall, formerly Franklin Mills, has been in decline for years and was recently listed for sale. Real estate investor Dean Adler has said he wants to buy the 137-acre mall and turn it into a youth sports complex with a hotel and Margaritaville-themed water park.
Seven miles away, the Roosevelt Mall is home to several shops that were once found almost exclusively in enclosed malls, such as Bath & Body Works, Foot Locker, and the forthcoming Victoria’s Secret. These companies’ higher-ups have pivoted in recent years, adding more locations in open-air centers.
“It’s not like retailers are leaving malls en masse … at least in the best malls,” Finnegan said. But “as they open stores in open-air shopping centers with grocery stores, with fitness uses, with elevated food and beverage, they’re seeing the sales performance” — and then want to keep investing in shopping centers.
Longer-standing retail tenants are continuing to see success, too. Finnegan said the Roosevelt Mall’s 300,000-square-foot standalone Macy’s is among the company’s top-performing locations in the region, rivaling the King of Prussia Mall store.
The department store is the center’s largest driver of traffic, recording more than 900,000 annual visits, said Brixmor executives, who are not worried about the department store closing as the Center City store did last year.
As seen in September, the Macy’s in the Wanamaker Building in Center City now sits empty. It closed last year.
Company executives said they are optimistic this momentum will continue. Along with the under-construction section, redevelopment plans also include another standalone building that has yet to break ground — and the cost of which is not included in the current price tag.
Finnegan put it simply: “Opportunity begets opportunity.”
