Weavers Way food coop is receiving $1 million in state aid for its Germantown expansion

The popular Northwest Philadelphia Weavers Way food cooperative announced this week that it received a $1 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant for the construction of a new location in Germantown.

The grant would cover about a sixth of the construction costs, which remain subject to unpredictable material and labor costs at this point in the pandemic.

“We knew going into this that we would need extraordinary funding because it’s a really tough time to be doing this kind of work,” said Kathleen Casey, head of development with Weavers Way.

The RACP funds come on top of $500,000 secured from the Neighborhood Economic Development Grant Program, which is distributed by the municipal Commerce Department and funded by City Council President Darrell L. Clarke’s Neighborhood Preservation Initiative (NPI).

Weavers Way also received $200,000 from the nonprofit Reinvestment Fund, and $50,000 from another state grant that is administered by the Food Trust, also a nonprofit. The rest of the funds are largely coming from micro-loans and gifts from co-op members.

State Rep. Chris Rabb (D., Phila.) was instrumental in securing the RACP money for the cooperative’s expansion. Although the new location is not in his district, the Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy Weavers Way locations are.

“Weavers Way is one of the oldest co-ops in the nation [and] I believe their footprint should be expanded wherever there is need,” Rabb said.

Weavers Way was founded in 1973 in Mount Airy and since expanded to Chestnut Hill and a suburban location in Ambler. Casey says that Germantown is home to their fourth largest cluster of members, after the neighborhoods where stores are physically located. It will also be well placed to serve residents of East Falls.

“These [customers] are people who are shopping in Mount Airy, which is at capacity. It’s bursting at the seams,” Casey said. The Mount Airy location “is also not a very accessible store. So a lot of members might go as far as Ambler or Chestnut Hill because of access issues if they can’t use the stairs.”

The Germantown store will be about 6,000 square feet, larger than the two other Philadelphia locations. It will provide 45 “high-quality” jobs, according to a Commerce Department document explaining the $500,000 NPI grant.

Casey said Germantown is also a strong expansion opportunity because of the unusual level of residential construction in the neighborhood, which saw a surge of real estate interest during the pandemic.

“There’s a lot of developers that have been coming in, and there’s going to be an influx of new residents in what is already a relatively high populated area of Germantown,” Casey said. “We believe there’s going to be a pretty sizable population base to serve.”

Construction is expected to begin early next year. The building, at 328-32 W. Chelten Ave., formerly housed an Acme grocery store but was repurposed for a social services agency. Renovations are expected to be completed next autumn.