Wawa agent asks city for site changes

Wawa, the wildly popular convenience store chain, is getting closer to building a store in Greenacres.

Plans for a 5,943-square-foot store with a 6,090-square-foot, eight-pump gas station on the southwest corner of Lake Worth and South Jog roads should go before the city council in early February, said Planning and Engineering Director Tom Lanahan.

Bohler Engineering, a Boca Raton civil engineering firm that specializes in commercial site development and is the agent for Wawa, is requesting the city annex five parcels totaling about 4.1 acres. It’s also asking to change the future land use from Palm Beach County commercial high to Greenacres commercial, and to change the zoning from county general commercial to city commercial intensive.

The company will need a special exception to build a convenience store with gas pumps where an old gas station and mattress store now stand.

George Balaban, a project manager at Bohler Engineering, didn’t respond to several attempts seeking comment.

Lanahan said Bohler recently received a landscape buffer variance from the city. The zoning, site plan and annexation requests are scheduled to be reviewed by the city’s Planning Commission on Jan. 20, Lanahan said.

Construction is on track to start this year and should take six to nine months, Lanahan added.

Wawa, a Pennsylvania company started in 1964 and known for its hoagies, in July received approval to build a convenience store and gas station just east of Palm Beach International Airport.

The company also recently won approval from the City Council in Riviera Beach to build a store on the southwest corner of Blue Heron Boulevard and Garden Road.

Last year, Wawa announced plans to open dozens of stores in Palm Beach and Broward counties during the next five years. There are 645 stores in the chain in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Central Florida, according to the company’s website.