Wawa in Philly’s Headhouse Square to close

The Headhouse Square Wawa will close July 16, a company official told The Inquirer. The move comes after neighborhood associations had complained to Wawa about aggressive panhandling, crime, and drug use at the store and outside on the sidewalk.

The site will become the sixth Center City Wawa to shutter since 2020.

“While closing a store is always a difficult decision to make, Wawa constantly conducts careful and extensive evaluations of business performance and operational challenges of all stores on an ongoing basis,” said Wawa spokesperson Lori Bruce in a statement Friday, confirming the pending closure of the Wawa at Second and Lombard Streets. “We continue to invest in our home market of Philadelphia.”

Joe Dain, cofounder of the Delancey Square Town Watch, which was formed earlier this year, said his group and other neighborhood organizations had met with Wawa officials in April to discuss ongoing concerns at the Headhouse Square Wawa. By that time, the company, he said, had already taken measures to curb panhandlers and other public nuisance issues, including curtailing its hours, hiring private security, and working with city police to provide patrols.

“There were certainly efforts being made,” Dain said. “What we were addressing was the fact that more needed to be done.”

Wawa notified the group that it would be instead closing the location, he said. The closure will be only the latest vacancy to hit the historic cobblestone district. A CVS across the street from the Wawa also closed its doors in recent years. The drugstore had been battling many of the same concerns, Dain said. In 2019, Giant Heirloom said it planned to open a supermarket at Abbotts Square at Second and South, around the corner, but that project has since fallen through. The property sits vacant.

“Although we’re not proponents of empty businesses in this beautiful area, we certainly support the idea of having a business close that’s been the source of a lot of issues,” Dain said.

An employee at the Headhouse Wawa declined comment and deferred to corporate.

According to Councilmember Mark Squilla’s office, Wawa cited performance when discussing the closure. Anne Kelly King, Squilla’s chief of staff, said he’s working with the building’s landlord to find possible replacements so as not to keep the storefront vacant too long.

Wawa has been shrinking its Center City presence.

In October, when Wawa announced it was closing stores at 12th and Market Streets and 19th and Market Streets, the company cited “continued safety and security closures.

At that time, The Inquirer reported that across the 40 remaining Wawas in Philadelphia, the total number of reported thefts doubled in the previous two years. Robberies and aggravated assaults accounted for a very small fraction of total crimes around the stores, the data showed.

“Despite reducing hours and investing in additional operational measures, continued safety and security challenges and business factors have made it increasingly difficult to remain open in these two locations,” Bruce said at the time.

Wawas at 13th and Chestnut, Ninth and South, and Broad and Walnut have also closed in recent years. And more Center City branches have been scuttling 24-hour service.

Dain, of the Delancey Square Town Watch, said the Headhouse Square store had become more of a problem for residents in recent years.

“We would have groups of kids coming in and ransacking the place at night,” he said. Some of the panhandlers that often congregated outside the store had become aggressive, he said. The store had also become a gathering spot for people in addiction, he said, who would then camp in the historic Shambles structure or by the Headhouse Square Fountain.

Wawa’s presence in Center City has fluctuated. It closed several locations in the early 2000s, and more over the following few years. The company then added more Center City locations ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families in 2015. Some of those locations were among the recent closures.

In January, Wawa CEO Chris Gheysens announced plans to transform the shuttered store at 19th and Market into a training center for tech workers.

“The new tech hub will serve as a dynamic addition to the Market Street corridor and highlights Wawa’s forward-thinking approach to business and investment in the City of Philadelphia,” Gheysens had said in an interview.

The company recently renovated their 17th and Arch location, providing a “fresh and rebranded store with expanded offers including our milkshake line,” Bruce noted Friday.

Staff writers Michael Klein and Ximena Conde contributed to this article.