Hellertown area residents who have been anticipating buying gas, food and other items at a new Sheetz in the borough before the end of the year will have to wait a bit longer to satisfy their curiosity–and their cravings–at the store.
Though officials with the Altoona-based company previously said they expected the Sheetz at Main Street and Kichline Avenue–just off Interstate 78–to open by the end of 2025, they recently revised their timeline.
The gas sign for the new Hellertown Sheetz likely won’t be turned on until April, company officials said Thursday.
“Due to some additional site work needed at this location, the opening of this store is now projected for mid-April,” Public Affairs Manager for Sheetz Nick Ruffner said in a statement Thursday.
The new Sheetz will sell gas as well as a wide variety of prepared food products, beverages and convenience store items 24 hours a day, and will cater to interstate travelers along with local residents, some of whom opposed its construction.
Just north of where the Sheetz is now under construction, on the site of the former Champion spark plug factory, finishing touches are being added to a three-story medical building that will soon house a Lehigh Valley Health Network microhospital.
Both commercial projects are located at the north end of Hellertown, in a borough-established highway overlay district that has also seen considerable residential development in recent years. Other residential projects are planned.
When it opens, the Hellertown Sheetz will be located less than two miles from a Sheetz that opened in South Bethlehem near the Wind Creek casino last year. Several miles to the west, the company plans to build a gas station and convenience store near the entrance to the Saucon Valley Square shopping center on Rt. 378 in Lower Saucon Township.
The Lehigh Valley Health Network medical office building and microhospital under construction in Hellertown is visible above, at right, behind the Sheetz that is simultaneously being built next door to it.
Construction workers were at work on the new Sheetz Thursday.
A new Sheetz that is expected to open in mid-April is under construction at Kichline Avenue and Main Street in Hellertown.