First announced almost 2 1/2 years ago, the approved Sprouts Farmers Market Grocery for Washington Township crossed it’s last hurdle two weeks ago, with the final sale of the property to the developer… who is expected to start construction soon.
Soon, you say? How about as soon as next week!? Well that’s according to construction industry sources.
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This property sale step only happens because every other facet of the approval and design has been worked out… and considering this as undeveloped land with no existing access points into local roadways, those efforts did have additional aspects to “workout” before the property settlement.
The property is located on Egg Harbor Road adjacent to the Harbor Place Shopping Center which is at the corner of Hurffville-Grenloch Road. As a reference point, Harbor Place is home to Palmisano’s, Rita’s Water Ice, Dollar Tree, TD Bank and more.
For the all-new development, an almost 6-acre undeveloped parcel adjacent to Harbor Place along Egg Harbor Road will be developed into a new shopping center featuring the 23,000 square foot Sprouts, as well as an attached 6,000 square foot retail space (which is available for lease).
While the existing Harbor Place and the new Sprouts center will not be connected as one large building, the parking lots for the two shopping centers will be connected via driveways and cars will be able to travel between the two lots/centers.
The project will see some changes at the Salina Road traffic-signaled intersection (at Egg Harbor) as the current “three-way” intersection will see the addition of fourth traffic point functioning as a main entry in and out of the Sprouts property.
Sprouts Farmers Market – Washington Township
Sprouts Farmers Market is a healthy grocer with a big focus on organic foods, fresh produce, vitamin supplements, as well as offering a selection of prepared food items.
Earlier this year a new Sprouts Farmers Market opened in West Deptford, and previously they opened in Haddon Township and Evesham Township.
As mentioned, the Washington Township Sprouts Farmers Market was first announced In March of 2023, which I covered in an article at 42Freeway.com.
That announcement was very early in the process… soon after the initial lease was signed, which meant the bulk of the design work still needed to be put together before they could present the project to the Washington Township Zoning Board for approval.
Later that same year in October, the core of the Sprouts project was approved by Washington Township Zoning Board. The developer did return again for additional approvals regarding signage.
This property had years prior been approved for an extension of the Harbor Place shopping center… So it’s use as a commercial development was already established, and the 2023 Zoning hearing for Sprouts was more about making sure it met the development requirements of the Township.
Sprouts has evolved their grocery store footprint over the years from a larger store such as in Evesham Township, to the 23,000 square foot sized locations of West Deptford (and the upcoming Washington Township location).
For the most part if you visited the recently opened West Deptford location you should expect to see a very similar, if not exact experience for the upcoming Washington Township location.
It’s a smart move for the Sprouts company as that consistent store configuration not only reduces design and development cost, it provides both staff and customers a consistent shopping experience throughout their stores.
Many will note that the West Deptford location was actually approved after Washington Township and was somehow able to open before the Washington Township location had one shovel in the dirt!
As I chronicled in my December 2024 article, the West Deptford location had significant advantages related to development approvals, as it was an existing shopping center already with the necessary connection points to the state and county roadways.
For the Washington Township location, since it’s an undeveloped lot there were considerable aspects to be worked out such as access points into both the new shopping center and the harbor place shopping centers, as well as water management on the property.
Considering they are starting from literal dirt in Washington Township, we could expect this project to take a full year to be completed and likely see Sprouts opening in the third quarter of 2026.
Links and Location
Sprouts Farmers Market Washington Township288 Egg Harbor RoadWashington Township NJ 08080
Sprouts Farmers Market West Deptford875 Mantua PikeWest Deptford NJ