A new Starbucks will open at Main Street and Polk Valley Road in Hellertown later this spring. Borough council received an update about the store from zoning and codes enforcement officer Kris Russo at their meeting Monday night.
After a development phase that’s lasted nearly two years, a new Starbucks on Main Street in Hellertown is nearly complete and anxious to receive its certificate of occupancy (CO).
“If you’ve driven down that way you’ll notice that they’ve done a lot of onsite work. They’re still working with PennDOT on the curbing, which includes the elimination of the driveway along Main Street there,” zoning and codes enforcement officer Kris Russo told borough council Monday.
Russo said both the general contractor for the project and the property owner recently contacted him with concerns “over getting PennDOT to come out and do inspections for the PennDOT work,” which is why they asked him about possibly obtaining a “temporary certificate of occupancy.”
Russo said he responded by telling them that the borough is amenable to that option, but would require that concrete barriers with reflective markings on them be positioned in the defunct driveway apron. A further stipulation, he said, will be that no additional escrow funds are released “until the PennDOT work is complete.”
PennDOT “does not do inspections for asphalt or concrete unless the weather is a certain temperature,” Russo said, which may explain why those inspections have been delayed.
“Now that the weather is starting to warm up, they should be able to get the people to come out and do the required inspections,” he told council.
Russo indicated that Starbucks is also in the midst of having the new store inspected by the state Department of Agriculture.
Once the company receives a health certificate, he said he expects Starbucks will want to open the doors to it as soon as possible.
After listening to the update, council members gave Russo the go-ahead to issue a temporary CO with the conditions he outlined.
The new Starbucks will be a standalone store with a long drive-thru lane that wraps around the building; a brick structure that formerly housed a Bank of America branch.
The Starbucks’ address is 5 Main Street. The building it will occupy is at the corner of Main Street (Rt. 412) and Polk Valley Road, in the Shoppes at Hellertown parking lot.
A nearby Starbucks kiosk in the Giant supermarket on Leithsville Road (Rt. 412) will remain open, as it is an authorized retailer, as opposed to a company-operated location.
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The new Hellertown Starbucks–which will be located in a former bank branch–will include an outdoor dining area.
Designated parking spaces for curbside pickup orders are located on the north side of the building.
An “Order Here” LED screen has been installed in the drive-thru lane at the new Starbucks in Hellertown. Once the store opens later this spring, customers will be able to order off a menu that will be displayed next to the screen.
Starbucks will join a number of established businesses in the Shoppes at Hellertown shopping center, including Saucon True Value, Dollar General, Hellertown Diner, DiMaio’s Italian Ristorante & Pizzeria, B&B Pools and New Star.
