The former Circuit City property in Wilkins will be home to a new Chick-Fil-A in the near future.
Benderson Development of Buffalo, N.Y., received approval from township commissioners to redevelop the former tech store, located on 12.75 acres on the Wilkins-Monroeville border.
Developer James Boglioli said Benderson plans to build a new Chick-Fil-A on the eastern side of the property. It will include an exterior patio and three drive-thru lanes which will merge into two pickup lanes. The lanes will be covered with canopies, where Chick-Fil-A staff members can take customer orders.
Benderson has plans to install a stand-alone, drive-up Chase Bank ATM located closer to Route 22 on the property’s south side.
Township commissioners granted approval to the development in February. Boglioli said Benderson is working on retaining a contractor to begin construction at the site.
Across the highway, construction equipment and dumpsters sit idle on the property where a former Hooters was burned down in June, part of a series of fires set over three days in Monroeville, Wilkins, Brentwood and Pleasant Hills. David Harknett, 41, of Squirrel Hill was charged with setting the fires.
The property has been owned by Lidl since 2016. The German discount grocery chain bought the Wilkins property as well as a property in Richland as part of a planned U.S. expansion in the mid-2010s.
Neither of those properties has been developed into a store.
Lidl officials did not respond to requests for comment about future development at the Wilkins site.
The closest Lidl to the Pittsburgh area is in Hagerstown, Md. The chain does have a location in Harrisburg and several across southeastern Pennsylvania.
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.