On the morning of June 5, 2026, an asphalt milling machine tore into the old parking lot at 100 Pemberton-Browns Mills Road while dump trucks hauled away pavement in chunks. Excavators moved concrete rubble from a shopping center that had already been fully demolished. Tree crews cleared what was left of the lot's edges. At 10 a.m. sharp, Pemberton Township Business Administrator Rosemary "Roe" Flaherty, Republican Mayor Matthew Bianchini, and developer Felix Bruselovsky of New Horizon Properties put shovels in the ground for what the township is now calling Pemberton Commons.
If you live in Browns Mills, you already know this lot. You've driven past its boarded storefronts for years, maybe decades. What you may not know yet is what's actually confirmed to open there this fall, and what quietly fell out of the plan along the way. The short version: a Wawa and a Taco Bell are coming, with a target of October. The grocery store that was the entire point of this fight for the past two years is not part of that opening, and nobody in township government will say when, or if, it will be.
A Site That Outlasted Its Own Anchor Tenant
The shopping center at Pemberton-Browns Mills Road and Juliustown Road dates to 1961. Its anchor tenant, Acme, left in 1996 for the nearby Pine Grove Shopping Center, and the property spent the following decades sliding toward the state it was in by 2016, when roughly 14 to 17 storefronts sat vacant. The center's former owner, Rocco Berardi, sued the township in 2017 over what he alleged was interference with his business. That case settled in 2018.
Pemberton Township eventually acquired the property through eminent domain and, about six years before the site plan was approved in December 2024, designated New Horizon Properties as the redeveloper. That is not a fast timeline for a single retail parcel, and it is worth sitting with for a second: a family in Browns Mills has had a child start kindergarten and finish middle school in the time this project has been in the redeveloper's hands.
The Plan That Promised a Grocery Store
When the Pemberton Township Planning Board approved the site plan on December 3, 2024, it called for four buildings on the tract: a 16,000 square-foot grocery store, an 11,700 square-foot retail store, a 6,372 square-foot convenience store with gas pumps, and a roughly 2,248 square-foot drive-through restaurant. At that meeting, the redeveloper's engineer and architect told the board specifically who would occupy each space: Grocery Outlet in the supermarket slot, a relocated Wawa in the convenience store building, and Taco Bell in the drive-through. Developer Felix Bruselovsky told reporters those three tenants were exactly what township officials had asked for.
Two months later, Grocery Outlet announced a company-wide restructuring, scaling back planned openings and walking away from stores it considered located in what it called suboptimal markets. Browns Mills was one of the leases that didn't survive the cut.
The Grocery Store That Disappeared
What happened next is the part of this story that hasn't gotten much attention outside township council meetings, and it's the part residents most need to understand before they assume this project means their grocery gap is solved.
With Grocery Outlet gone, New Horizon began talking to Tractor Supply about taking the supermarket space instead. Township council pushed back, and not quietly. Councilman Dan Dewey argued the swap broke faith with residents who had been told a grocery store was coming, and raised concerns about what a Tractor Supply would mean for O'Brien and Sons, the family-run hardware store directly across the street. At a December 2025 council session covered by the Pine Barrens Tribune, Dewey characterized the redeveloper's original tenant presentation as, in his words, a "dog and pony show," after learning a grocery store might not materialize until "maybe in 36 months after we get the facility done." Councilman Joshua Ward called that timeline unacceptable.
The council's Fifth Amendment to the redeveloper's agreement, approved January 28, 2026, cleared the way for the township to close on the sale to New Horizon and let construction begin, but it did so without locking in a grocery tenant. Days later, on February 3, Mayor Bianchini told a reporter the Tractor Supply option was "off the table," then, when pressed on whether that was permanent, clarified: "I am not sure about completely, but it is for now." That is not the language of a resolved question. It is the language of a project that has moved on to its next phase without actually answering the one thing residents organized around.
By a March 18, 2026 council meeting, when resident and local candidate for office Millie Tuchez asked directly whether Wawa and Taco Bell were the only definitive tenants, Bianchini answered: "As of right now, yes."
What's Actually Under Construction Now
The June groundbreaking made that arrangement official. Bianchini told the crowd the redeveloper is targeting October 2026 for Wawa and Taco Bell to open, while cautioning that the date could shift. Those are the two tenants with shovels in the ground right now. The grocery store, the retail building, and any timeline for either remain open questions.
Here's where things actually stand as of this fall:
- Confirmed, under construction, targeting October 2026: a relocated Wawa with fuel pumps, and a Taco Bell with a drive-through lane.
- Not part of the current construction phase: the 16,000 square-foot grocery store space and the separate retail building. No tenant has been named for either since Grocery Outlet's exit, and no firm date has been attached to when that phase might begin.
- Off the table, for now, but not ruled out permanently by the mayor's own words: Tractor Supply as the grocery space's replacement tenant.
Bianchini has framed the project as a turning point for the township regardless of the grocery question, telling the crowd at the groundbreaking that "this community is built on your dedication, your pride and your belief in what this township can be." Bruselovsky, for his part, told a reporter afterward that the township's new administration had changed how he felt about doing more work in Pemberton: "I have no problem doing other projects here and trying to build this area up nicely."
What This Means If You Live Here
If you've been waiting for a real grocery option near downtown Browns Mills, this construction season doesn't get you there. What you'll get by October, assuming the timeline holds, is a bigger Wawa with gas pumps and a Taco Bell where a shuttered strip mall used to sit. Both are useful. Neither replaces a supermarket.
In the meantime, expect the usual disruptions that come with a demolition-to-construction site on a road you probably drive daily: equipment traffic, temporary lane shifts near the Pemberton-Browns Mills Road and Juliustown Road intersection, and dust on dry days. The property's last holdout tenant, Elly's Premium Laundry, kept operating past a court-ordered eviction deadline until the township finally removed it in November 2025, following a public and fairly contentious back and forth over where the owner was supposed to relocate. That fight is what cleared the final unit for demolition.
For anyone weighing whether O'Brien and Sons across the street will still be there when this is finished, the answer so far is yes. Concern about that business is part of why the Tractor Supply option got shelved in the first place. Whether the grocery space eventually goes to another supermarket chain, a smaller independent operator, or sits empty for another stretch is genuinely unresolved, and township council has been transparent that it doesn't have that answer either.
This is a project worth watching through the fall, not because it's finished, but because the piece that's opening is not the piece that mattered most to the people who fought for it.
If you're thinking about what a changing Browns Mills means for your own home, whether you're weighing a move, wondering how a project like this affects nearby property values, or just want a straight answer about the local market, Ronald Palentchar has spent 26 years working these Burlington County neighborhoods and is happy to talk through what you're seeing on the ground. Let's Connect.
