Subway will open Chelten Plaza shop, existing bank location to expand offerings

Chelten Plaza will soon be home to a new business as a Subway sandwich franchisee will open a location at the Chelten and Pulaski avenues shopping center in December.

Both plaza developer Pat Burns and Subway construction manager Racheal Disney confirmed to NewsWorks that a lease has been signed by franchisee Kamaljit Singh.

The eatery, for which interior work has not yet started, will be located next to the Citibank location on the Pulaski Avenue side of the plaza. Also on that strip of stores is Anna’s Linens, a Deal$ variety store and a vacancy.

Disney said the location, which would be the 49th in Philadelphia, will open sometime in December.

“It’s good to see,” Burns said on Friday. “It shows there is a lot of vibrancy at the Plaza.”

Bank expands services

When Citibank held a grand-opening ribbon-cutting event for its “Germantown Lending Center” in Chelten Plaza in March, state, city and neighborhood officials were on hand to laud it as a “tipping point” in neighborhood development.

Bank officials noted that when the “lending center” became a full-service branch by year’s end, it would be the first new bank to open in Germantown in two decades.

Branch manager Afia McKinley told NewsWorks on Friday that the location would become a full-service branch on Dec. 3 with a second ribbon-cutting event tentatively scheduled for Jan. 16.

Five full-time employees and one part-timer have already been hired in anticipation of the transition, she said.

“We’re very excited to become a full-service branch,” McKinley said. “As a Germantown native who knows what this part of the neighborhood used to look like, I stand a little more proud. [The shopping center] is having a nice impact on the community.”

Pending leases

Burns noted that he is currently in negotiations another pair of potential tenants but did not want to divulge specific names because contracts have yet to be finalized.

Talk at the plaza, which is also home to the Save-A-Lot supermarket and Wired Beans Cafe coffee shop, is of a regionally recognized shoe store eyeing a location there.

Burns said he hopes to make an announcement within two or three weeks.