Perhaps you've driven by a store that's under construction and wondered what was coming. Or maybe you heard a rumor from a neighbor about a new shop coming. Or possibly you've just daydreamed about the kind of restaurant you wish would move in close to home.

Well wonder no longer. The Asbury Park Press wants to know what's going there too, and our reporters keep tabs on all kinds of development in Monmouth and Ocean counties. So check out our stories below to get a sense of the commercial businesses coming this way.

And if you want to make sure you stay on top of all this, be sure to join our What's Going There Facebook page, with over 16,000 members.

Residential real estate: Your summer guide to the Jersey Shore housing market

Places to eat

Marlboro McDonald's $3.1M renovation completely upends fast-food restaurants. The new McDonald's of Marlboro that's about to rise on Route 9 will look nothing like the old McDonald's restaurant that's there now. And it shows how the fast-food world has changed during the pandemic. This report is available to our subscribers.

Starbucks with drive-through, Jersey Mike's coming to Whiting Commons shopping center. The Manchester Planning Board recently approved a new retail building on Lacey Road, a part of the Stop & Shop-anchored Whiting Commons.

The building already has three tenants signed up: Starbucks, Jersey Mike's Subs and an AT&T store.

Crumbl Cookies in Holmdel ready to open, bringing tasty cookies to Brick, too.

Crumbl is on an expansion streak in the Garden State. The chain opened its first bakery in New Jersey at Seaview Square shopping center in Ocean Township in January, and followed with stores in Holmdel and Clark. More stores are planned for Brick and Cherry Hill.

Toms River Chipotle will come with 'Chipotlane' drive-thru. Chipotle Mexican Grill is on the way to Route 37. The 2,325-square-foot restaurant will have 65 seats and includes a Chipotlane, Chipotle’s digital order drive-thru pick-up lane.

Starbucks opens cafe on Route 35 in Middletown to replace empty restaurant. Starbucks opened its Route 35 cafe and drive-up, taking over a former Boston Market restaurant. The coffee company remodeled the standalone 3,100-square-foot building at the Middletown Marketplace shopping center this past winter.

Bubbakoo's Burritos opens Hazlet Town Center restaurant. The company, founded by Paul Altero and Bill Hart, opened its first restaurant, located in Point Pleasant, in 2008. The Hazlet shop is the chain's 21st location in Monmouth and Ocean counties.

P.F. Chang's opens restaurant at Ocean County Mall in Toms River. The restaurant, located in the Ocean County Mall's new lifestyle center, is P.F. Chang's second at the Jersey Shore. The other is at Freehold Raceway Mall in Freehold Township, one of eight other locations in New Jersey.

Turning Point reviving dead Toms River chain restaurant with breakfast and lunch. Construction has begun on Turning Point, the popular breakfast, lunch and brunch chain, at the former Ruby Tuesday on Route 37, with an anticipated opening sometime late this summer. This report is available to our subscribers.

Sweetgreen brings salads to The Grove at Shrewsbury. The Sweetgreen restaurant chain is expected to open its first Monmouth County location this summer at The Grove at Shrewsbury. With other spots in Hackensack and Jersey City, it will be Sweetgreen's third operation in New Jersey.

Martell's Waters Edge in Berkeley gets new owner, new name and year-round dining. B2 Bistro + Bar has purchased Martell's Waters Edge with plans to create a dining and entertainment destination on the Barnegat Bay. The restaurant, located at 125 Bayview Ave. or due east of buoy 37 on the bayside, is the B2 Bistro + Bar restaurant group's sixth B2 Bistro + Bar location and its third in Ocean County.

Pizza Hut opens in Monmouth, with two more planned for Ocean County, including drive-thru. Pizza Hut has opened its new restaurant on Route 35, one of several new locations expected in Monmouth and Ocean counties in the coming months. Pizza Hut already has restaurants on Route 9 in Freehold Township, Brick Boulevard in Brick, and Route 37 in Toms River.

Stafford Chick-fil-A on Route 72 opens, while Panera construction is underway. The restaurant, located at 434 Route 72, had been in the works since it was approved by the Planning Board in 2019. A Panera restaurant is being built next door.

Wingstop opens in Freehold, Five Guys gets makeover, Starbucks replacing Burger King. Wingstop opened a restaurant on West Main Street in Freehold. It's the fourth Wingstop to come to the Jersey Shore. The popular chicken restaurant has locations in Neptune City, Aberdeen and Toms River. A fifth location is under construction on Route 35 in Eatontown.

Food markets

Freehold Raceway Mall getting kind of store it's never had before to replace Bob's. Lidl, the German discount grocer, has filed a preliminary site plan to open a 30,725-square-foot grocery store in a space that is now occupied by Bob's Stores. Bob's Stores, which is located right off of Trotters Way near the entrance to the mall on Route 537 in Freehold Township, is in the middle of a store closing sale. This report is available to our subscribers.

Corrado's locked out weeks before Brick supermarket's expected opening. Nearly three years after the North Jersey grocery chain Corrado's Market announced it was coming to Laurel Square, and just weeks before its long-delayed promised opening, the landlord has shut the store out.

Pastosa Ravioli finally comes to Eatontown, an Italian food store 20 years in the making. Twenty years ago, Pastosa Ravioli's founder, Anthony Ajello Sr., age 75 at the time, scouted out Eatontown as an "ideal location" for a new Italian food market. Finally, his dream has come true at the Plaza 35 Village near Monmouth Mall.

NJ health food market chain Dean's gets new name, new owner but same philosophy.  Mount Kisco, New York-based Green’s Natural Foods, which has four natural and organic markets in Westchester County, purchased Dean’s four New Jersey locations: in Ocean Township, Shrewsbury, Chester in Morris County and in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards in Somerset County. This report is available to our subscribers.

CVS pharmacy to fill this empty landmark Manasquan supermarket. CVS Pharmacy has signed a lease for the former Acme Market at Route 71 and Main Street, which closed in December 2020.

Aldi sets Freehold Township opening as shopping center reborn with new stores, new look. Aldi's new 21,000-square-foot store is located next to Leslie's Pool Supplies. It is part of Aldi's plans to open about 150 stores and be the third largest grocer in the U.S. by the end of 2022.

Warehouses

Warehouses in your neighborhood: Where more are coming to Monmouth and Ocean, and why. These days, if a piece of land is allowed for an industrial use, a developer wants to put a warehouse on it. Here's where they're coming in Monmouth and Ocean counties. This report is available to our subscribers.

Manalapan punts decision on warehouse near Monmouth Battlefield to Zoning Board. Planning board members expressed concern that the use of the phrase “flex space” was being used inappropriately to build what is essentially a warehouse. The plans by the developer Mercer Realty Partners LLC show about 95% of the space being allotted to a warehouse and the other 5% being used as office space or for manufacturing.

Marlboro self-storage facility plan rejected in split zoning board vote. Developer Yankee Investments LLC had asked to build three one-story self-storage units along with a single one-story flex space building. Some board members wanted more restrictions on the self-storage space and a clearer idea of who could potentially rent the flex-use building.

Controversial Howell warehouse proposal, rejected once already, back with smaller plan. The Monmouth Commerce Center, the wildly controversial Randolph Road warehouse proposal that was unanimously rejected by the Planning Board in 2020 and  the subject of two ongoing lawsuits against the township, is back with a new, pared-down proposal — and a website and Facebook page aimed at drumming up support in town. This report is available to our subscribers.

Wall may get 2.1M square feet of warehouses over 10 buildings. Active Acquisitions Inc. has proposed building nearly 2.1 million square feet of warehousing space and 124,000 square feet of office space across 10 buildings at the former McDowell gravel pits on West Hurley Pond Road. This report is available to our subscribers.

Howell warehouse OK'd off Route 33, but another up for debate in same neighborhood. The development site has a long and varied history. It was previously used as "a soil mining operation, a compost receiving area for use in soil reclamation and regeneration, and more recently as a staging area for blending materials to produce topsoil for reclamation projects, landfills and agricultural operations," according to a memo to the board from its engineer, Charles Cunliffe. This report is available to our subscribers.

Big box stores

Target delays opening of Wall store. Fans will have to wait a little longer for Target on Route 35 to open. Target has delayed the opening date for its long-awaited new store in Wall. Previously set for May 15, the date is now undetermined.

Wall Target sets opening day for Route 35 store. The company, one of the largest U.S. retailers, has remodeled the inside of the former Kmart, located at 1825 Route 35. Kmart, which was an anchor store at Plaza 35 at the intersection of Route 35 and 18th Avenue, closed in December 2019.

Howell development: Route 9 parcel eyed for truck sales and service. The proposed dealership and service center would have a two-story, 38,750-square-foot building on the northbound side of Route 9, just north of an NJ Transit bus station, between West Farms Road and Casino Drive. This report is available to our subscribers.

Smaller shops

Wall Wawa plans shot down, so see the garden center growing there instead. Once the potential site for a Wawa convenience store, flowers and plants again grace the property at the former Harvest Exchange on Lakewood Road, where Shore River Gardens has opened.

Hair removal without wax? L.A. Bikini poised to add sugaring studios in Monmouth County. L.A. Bikini, a hair removal chain that uses a sugar paste instead of wax, has opened a studio at the Brook 35 shopping center on Route 35 in Wall. The company is targeting Middletown, Shrewsbury, Ocean Township, Marlboro, Manalapan and Freehold for new locations.

Haven Salon opens in Plaza 35 Village in Eatontown. Haven Salon Studios, part of a newly redeveloped shopping center on Route 35, features 26 salon studios, which are leased to beauty professionals who can set up shop and run their own businesses.

Asbury Book Cooperative moving to a space four times its original size. The small bookstore is moving across Cookman Avenue to 644-A Cookman, a space that is nearly four times as big. It's an outgrowth of words!, an independent bookstore that started in 2008. After the owners retired, the store converted into a member-run cooperative in 2020.

Royal Farms convenience store sits empty three years after Brick OK'd it; that may change. The building and sign is up. The parking lot's done. Still, there's no hint on when it will open. The store, now fully built, has a sign that says "Opening Soon" in red letters. Its website has Brick as a future location.

Freehold Raceway Mall getting new stores for your eyes, your stomach and your bottom. A store that sells beanbag-like furniture and an eyewear store are among the new retailers on the way to Freehold Raceway Mall. This report is available to our subscribers.

Fitness and entertainment

Golf Kings bringing courses from around the world indoors in Brick. Golf Kings, which gives golfers the ability to play a simulation of more than 150 courses around the world, is readying a location in Brick, its second store. It already has one in Wall.

Sea Oaks Golf Resort in Little Egg Harbor gets new owner, new name and $4.5M renovation. The resort is now LBI National Golf & Resort following its purchase by Accountable Equity, owners and operators the Renault Winery Resort and Vineyard National Golf Course in Egg Harbor.

Revamped Bradley Beach cinema reveals plans for big changes coming inside and out. The name, The Bradley, will sit atop the marquee at the borough's Main Street movie house. But it's the changes inside that might make the biggest difference. This report is available to our subscribers.

Middletown office building torn to pieces to make way for $40M Life Time fitness club. Demolition workers have begun to rip apart an office building on Half Mile Road to make way for Life Time, a $40 million luxury fitness, health and sports club.

Wave pool and water park coming to Adventure Crossing — but possible toxic emissions, too. The Jackson Zoning Board approved plans for an indoor water park and outdoor wave pool that will allow surfers to ride human-made waves, the fourth phase of the sprawling, nearly 300-acre Adventure Crossing project. A Hilton Garden Inn hotel, the third hotel proposed for the entire project, also was approved as part of the fourth phase of Adventure Crossing. But the approvals didn't come without controversy. The proposed 88-acre redevelopment plan also called for a cogeneration power plant on the site, and numerous residents expressed concern about emissions. This report is available to our subscribers.

What's going away

Long Branch's West End: Will 'bohemian' neighborhood survive as hangouts close? The recent closings of popular West End hangouts in Long Branch such as the punk rock and hardcore venue the Brighton Bar, Ron's West End Pub and the Inkwell coffee joint have left fewer places for locals to go. There are no plans yet for what will replace them and that has residents wondering what the future holds for the West End. This report is available to our subscribers.

Why Squan Furniture owners are closing shops after three generations at Jersey Shore. David Segall, who runs the business with his wife Karen, said it's time to close Squan Furniture, which has locations on Route 35 in Ocean Township and on Route 37 in Toms River. This report is available to our subscribers.

'It's time to retire': DeWolf's U-Pick Farm in Plumsted for sale for $3.4M. DeWolf's U-Pick Farm, which has sold produce to markets, locals and students on field trips during the past 55 years, has closed, and its property is for sale. This report is available to our subscribers.

Perkins closes in Freehold Township as another pancake restaurant plans to move in. Perkins franchisee and owner Ted Petrou retired and sold the property. Brownstone Pancake Factory is expected to replace it by this fall. This report is available to our subscribers.

Dead Golden Corral restaurant in Freehold Township getting entirely new use. RWJBarnabas Health plans to turn the former Golden Corral on Route 9 into doctors offices for primary care and women’s health. The facility, a joint effort by RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group and Monmouth Medical Center, is anticipated to open in December.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: What's going there?: Your new Jersey Shore stores guide