South Jersey town clears way for Wawa along this heavily traveled stretch of highway

LOGAN TWP. - Wawa has received township zoning approval to open a store within Logan South Industrial Park, where the operation could draw on heavily traveled Route 322 and warehouse workers for customers.

The Route 322 corridor already is thick with warehouses, with more building and planned. For example, construction is well advanced on a Burlington Coat Factory facility in the same industrial park Wawa will join.

The Zoning Board on Monday night took extensive testimony on the proposal before approved unanimously a use variance and other accommodations.

The park owner is subdividing about 5.16 acres for the store, which like others its size will have 16 fuel dispensing stations as well as two electrical vehicle charging stations. The property is at the northeast corner of Route 322 and newly constructed Crossroads Boulevard.

The site is about a half mile east of Bridgeport and the Route 130 interchange, with the Commodore Barry Bridge to Pennsylvania just a little farther. Route 322 traffic is a major route for summertime vacationers headed toward the Jersey Shore, another reason Wawa was interested in the site.

“When you take a step back, and look at it globally, there’s not a lot of offerings in terms of the fuel and the convenience that we can bring to it for customers,” Wawa project manager Kathryn Cornforth said.

The Zoning Board variance approval, however, is just a first step for the project.

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Wawa still must return to the board with an actual site plan for board review. The New Jersey Department of Transportation also is not finished its review of the proposed traffic access to the property.

Cornforth said afterward there is not a definite date for when the store is likely to open.

Wawa’s other store in Logan is on Center Square Road, near Exit 10 of Route 295. It also has a store on Paulsboro Road, just off Route 322, in Woolwich Township.

The new store would give the convenience chain three sites within 3.5 miles of each other, each advantageously near major roads and highways.

“Those two stores may see a little bit of business that leaves,” Cornforth said. “But they all three (should) be successful and independent of each other based on our analysis of picking his site.”

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Zoning Board members did complain to Wawa representatives about littering at the Center Square Road store, extracting promises to do better at trash disposal and collection.

Cornforth said controlling what happens with trash originating at its sites is a Wawa responsibility.

“I did hear that the Environmental Commission had concerns about that,” Cornforth said. “So, I actually had a conversation with the area manager. And I brought it to his attention, to let him know that there are concerns, there are complaints. He did assure me that he will, as part of his rounds, will make sure that he continues to monitor it and have it addressed appropriately.”

Another complaint was about trucks left idling while their drivers shop.

“All these points are well taken,” Wawa attorney Michael Floyd said. “Wawa wants to rectify them.”

Triple Net Investments XXXIX, the development corporation for Logan South Industrial Park, owns almost 72 acres off Route 322. The Crossroads Boulevard intersection also services industrial facilities on the other side of Route 322.

A Wawa representative said there are about 3.5 million square feet of warehouse facilities between the Logan South and the Logan North industrial parks. Those work forces are natural customers for the convenience store chain, he said.

The township Planning Board originally approved unspecified industrial and retail development of the property in February 2020. The plan since has been modified, though the idea of putting three retail-type businesses on small parcels facing the road has remained.

This article originally appeared on Vineland Daily Journal: Logan NJ Wawa moves ahead on Rt. 322 store, targets traffic