SCRANTON — Jimmy John’s, a national sandwich shop chain, plans to open a new location at The Marketplace at Steamtown, both businesses announced on social media.
A Jimmy John’s would go into a newly configured street-level retail space a short distance west of the main entrance of the mall at 300 Lackawanna Ave. The fitting-out of that space for Jimmy John’s might take another 90 days or so, marketplace General Manager Anthony Cali said.
A sign in a window there says “Jimmy John’s Coming Soon” and has the shop’s JJ logo.
It would be the second Jimmy John’s franchise in Lackawanna County, following one that opened in 2022 in South Abington Twp. at 920 Northern Blvd.
The franchisee’s JJ’s of NEPA page on Facebook and the marketplace both posted on Facebook on May 13 that the downtown Scranton mall would be getting a Jimmy’s John’s.
“Big things are coming! Jimmy John’s is thrilled to be joining The Marketplace at Steamtown in the near future,” the JJ’s of NEPA post on Facebook said.
Efforts on Wednesday to reach the franchisee were unsuccessful.
Founded in 1983 by Jimmy John Liautaud in the college town of Charleston, Illinois, Jimmy John’s has grown to over 2,600 locations in 45 states, according to the company website.
The chain has 25 shops throughout Pennsylvania, including another one in NEPA, in the Pocono Summit section of Tobyhanna Township in Monroe County at 2693 Route 940.
The Jimmy John’s shop will go next to the space that formerly contained a Ground Round restaurant.
Marketplace at Steamtown owner John Basalyga bought the formerly moribund, mostly vacant mall in an auction in 2015, renamed it and has since filled it with a number of nontraditional mall tenants, including several ‘eds and meds’ organizations, an aquarium and a children’s play place, along with more typical retail shops and businesses.
Early on, Basalyga planned to open a restaurant/bar called Londyn’s Tap House & Grill in the former Ground Round spot but that never panned out and it remains vacant and available for lease, Cali said of that space.
Meanwhile, Geisinger’s lease of a large segment of the mall resulted in some leftover utility-type space next to the former Ground Round that now is being converted into the Jimmy John’s shop, Cali said.
“Geisinger didn’t need it. That was leftover space. It ended up being an island so we put front doors in and it came to life” as a new storefront along Lackawanna Avenue, Cali said.
The mall also in recent months also added Nevermind Escape Rooms, Sundaes Best Handcrafted Gelateria and Catrina’s Snacks.