Wawa to be built on old Nabisco property
The iconic Nabisco bakery tower will be demolished, and a Wawa will be built on the site, at 12000 Roosevelt Blvd.
The Somerton Civic Association last week approved the plan, which is expected to include other stores on the 27.5-acre property. A shoe warehouse remains.
First, asbestos has to be removed from the tower.
The Wawa will have gasoline stations, and the lot will consist of 95 parking spots.
Provco Group, a Villanova firm that redevelops underutilized sites for commercial tenants, owns the property.
Mondelez closed the plant in July 2015 to consolidate production at company sites in New Jersey and Virginia.
The property was built in the 1950s. At one time, in the early 1980s, some 1,300 people were employed there. That count dropped to 450 by 2008.
Mondelez was created in 2011, when Kraft Foods spun off its snack foods business into a separate entity. At the time of the closing, 350 people lost their jobs. The site, just south of Byberry Road, is in a heavily trafficked area on the Boulevard and near Woodhaven Road, which leads to I-95. ••