A new PNC Bank branch and several other retail locations will soon be calling Penn's campus home.
With ongoing construction at the Moravian Cafes and various vacancies filling up -- temporarily or for the long term -- Penn continues to forge ahead in developing local retail offerings to students.
A PNC Bank branch is under construction in the vacant retail space adjacent to Marathon Grill on 40th Street and is slated to open by late summer.
The bank signed a lease this week to fill the approximately 1,000-square-foot property.
PNC spokesman Ed Kozmor declined to comment, citing his uncertainty as to whether plans to bring the branch to 40th Street are indeed finalized.
Penn facilities officials said the deal is complete.
"40th Street is a great little main street for University City, and if you look at the way that it operates now, there are great civic uses on that street," Facilities and Real Estate Services spokesman Tony Sorrentino said. "One thing that makes a main street really good for both the campus and the community, like 40th Street, would be a bank."
At the Moravian Cafes, located at 34th and Walnut streets, a dividing wall was constructed between the half of the 15,000-square-foot site that will become a CVS and the other half that will be occupied by five individual food venders.
The food court area will be anchored by Famous Famiglia Pizza and Gourmet Ice Cream and Yogurt, along with three other shops that have yet to be determined.
"The architects, the designers and the engineers are at work and you're probably going see some more enhanced and increased construction activity this spring," Sorrentino said. "We're still talking to a variety of food operators ... to see what we think would be the best fit for the three vacancies."
The Mexican-food chain Taco Bell is one food operator being considered.
Yum! Brands, Taco Bell's parent company, had faced complaints about the pay and working conditions faced by tomato pickers in Florida, from which Yum! receives a portion of its tomato supply.
However, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers -- which organized boycotts of the chain -- and Yum! Brands have recently announced a settlement to end the boycott.
The impact of this settlement on the University's consideration of a Taco Bell location in the Moravian Cafes remains unclear.
The strip in the Stouffer Triangle area along 37th and Spruce streets is also set to undergo some changes.
Bonded Cleaners has temporarily moved to the vacant space on 40th Street -- previously occupied by Bikeline -- to allow the University to combine its previous retail property with the space next door that used to be occupied by Grand Shoe.
Dolby's Medical Bookstore will move into this larger venue at an undetermined date.
"Business at the previous location has been in existence for a very long time and because of that I knew a lot of the customers. Coming here I don't know many of the faces, so I don't know how business will go," said a Bonded Cleaners employee who refused to give a name. "The problem is that we're not staying here permanently, just temporarily, so I'm not really sure how things are going to work out."
The space that Dolby's currently occupies -- a few doors down from its new space -- will be split into two separate stores, one of which the Bonded Cleaners will move back into once construction is complete.
The University will decide at a later date what to do with the remaining vacancy.
"Stouffer Triangle is a great commercial street for the students that live in the Quad," Sorrentino said. "It's also a great commercial street for the health campus ... and we would take into consideration the tens of thousands of people who work in Penn Medicine and the Penn health system everyday, as well as the patients and visitors who are in that part of campus."
The University is still in the process of finding a business to permanently fill the former Bikeline space on 40th Street.
"We're still actively marketing that space and thinking about what would be a unique addition that would enhance the character of 40th Street," Sorrentino said.
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