Applicants Highdale LLC and developer Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate are requesting a zoning change of 2705 Lehigh Place from multifamily apartment use to “convenience store that specializes in prepared food and beverage sales, that also sells gas.”
The two-story brick apartment building at 2705 Lehigh and the Frisch’s property account for the entire block at the southeast corner of Springboro Pike (741) and South Dixie Avenue.
The application says the change is “for the planning of a WaWa Convenience Store to encompass both 4830 S. Dixie Drive and 2705 Lehigh Place.”
Developers say in their application materials that “this redevelopment of the former Frisch’s will help bring a fresh facelift to this corner of Moraine.” The Frisch’s restaurant had operated there since 1964 until it closed in April 2023.
It has sat vacant since then, at an intersection that sees more than 40,000 vehicles per day, according to site plans included with the planning commission packet.
The preliminary site plan for the WaWa store shows that customers would have to turn into the property’s parking lot from the small side streets surrounding the gas station (Lehigh Place, Manistee Place or Pensacola Boulevard) as there would be no driveways directly off Springboro Pike or Dixie.
The gas pumps would be on the north side of the property near Dixie, and the building would be in the south/central part of the site, closer to Lehigh Place.
A letter in Tuesday’s meeting packet says that as of this past Thursday morning, most of the tenants in the 2705 Lehigh Place apartment building had not been told of the plan. The owner of that building said in an email to the city that he planned to offer the tenants leases at other nearby apartment buildings he owns.
WaWa opened its first Ohio store a month ago in Liberty Twp. and has plans to open eight more this year, largely in northern Cincinnati, but also with one in Huber Heights.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
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