Weavers Way Co-op’s Chestnut Hill location plans to close for eight to 10 weeks next summer for renovations.

The Chestnut Hill location opened at 8424 Germantown Ave. in 2010. Weavers Way General Manager Jon Roesser told the Local the store’s now 16-year-old equipment is reaching the end of its life cycle.

“We’ll fix the floor, put in new lighting, new paint, make some system repairs to the HVAC system and electrical and plumbing work and whatnot, and then put in a bunch of new equipment,” Roesser said. “All the new stuff goes in, and we fix some of the store’s choke points. We improve the front end, we make some improvements to the back of the store, which is also kind of a customer service choke point. In order to do it as quickly and painlessly as possible, closing the store is really the only way to do it.”

Some of the improvements have already begun. A new walk-in freezer was added to the outside, which will create more space inside once the renovations start. The front of the store will see a fourth register added, more freezer doors, and the return of the hot food bar, which was removed during the pandemic.

At the back of the store, the renovations will remove a stone masonry column and replace it with a steel beam, freeing up more space for customers.

“It’s all subject to change because it’s all subject to business conditions, economic conditions. So we haven’t signed anything yet … The other big piece is related to when we can procure the equipment that we would need, because the timing of that stuff is critical,” Roesser said. “We did this at our Mt. Airy store in 2013 … It’s the slowest time of year. If you’re going to pick a time of year to shut the store down, summertime is the best time for it. A lot of our customers just migrated up to the Chestnut Hill store, and that worked out fine.”

Roesser says they have not finalized the exact date of the renovations, but that during the closure, customers can shop at the Mt. Airy, Germantown, or Ambler stores.

Weavers Way will also park its mobile farm market truck behind the Chestnut Hill store to offer a smaller selection of produce during the closure. The truck was purchased using a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

“A lot of our employees who work in Chestnut Hill during the closure will probably be moved to the Ambler, Mt. Airy, or Germantown stores because all those stores are going to be busier and they’re going to need the extra help,” Roesser said. “Any employee that is interested in a temporary layoff during the closure, we can make that happen. We are going to have to retain some people to continue to work in Chestnut Hill, because we do plan to offer limited product offerings outside through the farm market truck.”

As the renovation project moves forward, Weavers Way will hold a member loan campaign to raise funds. Weavers Way held similar campaigns for previous store openings and renovations. The Chestnut Hill store is projected to be a multi-million dollar project.

“One in three households in Chestnut Hill are members of Weavers Way,” Roesser said. “That’s a concentration of members that we don’t even have in Mt. Airy, where we’ve been since 1973. If we do a member loan campaign, we’ve got a critical mass of members who shop in the Chestnut Hill store who would support that campaign.”

​