Andorra Shopping Center to get Giant supermarket as part of planned upgrades in Roxborough

Construction is expected to begin next year on a Giant supermarket at Roxborough’s Andorra Shopping Center in Northwest Philadelphia. The grocery store project will be the first phase of a larger redevelopment bringing news stores and improved landscaping to the decades-old shopping center along Cathedral Road.

Federal Realty Investment Trust, which handles leasing for the shopping center, said the 50,000-square-foot Giant will replace the former Acme market that closed earlier this year. An opening date for the new grocery store hasn’t been set.

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Developers are planning a $25 million investment in the shopping center that will include new openings in another 30,000 square feet of retail space adjacent to the Andorra branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia at the northwest end of the shopping center. Landscaped plazas, outdoor dining and curbside pickup locations are among the upgrades targeted to be finished by early 2026, planners said.

“We believe this reinvestment will position the shopping center and its businesses for long-term success,” said Kari Glinski, vice president of asset management at Federal Realty Investment Trust.

The Andorra Shopping Center was built in the 1950s at a time when the neighborhood emerged as one of the city’s more suburban-style communities bordering Montgomery County. The Acme at the shopping center originally occupied the space that would later became a series of movie theaters, including the AMC location that closed in 2003. The Giant will be in the former Acme that now sits next to LA Fitness.

The shopping center’s current stores include Kohl’s, T.J. Maxx, Five Below, Dollar Tree, Petco, Chipotle and Applebee’s.

Giant’s plans to open in Andorra continue the Carlisle-based chain’s expansion in Philadelphia, where its supermarkets and small-format Giant Heirloom stores have opened in locations across the city in recent years.

Federal Realty did not share details about any of the other stores that could be headed to the Andorra Shopping Center as part of the upcoming redevelopment.