This year, most of the change on Berlin-Cross Keys Road in Sicklerville happened inside buildings that were already there. A crabcake shop moved into a former pasta shop. An Indian bistro took over a former Italian restaurant. An off-price clothing chain is opening in a former Big Lots this Saturday. The one ground-up build that did open, 7 Brew Coffee, arrived with its core building made off-site. The Super Wawa at Johnson Road requires tearing down a shopping center and building a new store in its place. That store closed in January, and no source has given a reopening date since.
The pattern is easy to miss when the news comes one business at a time. Here is the full year on the corridor, in order:
| When | What | Where on the corridor | Status as of October 5, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 26 | Legacy Wawa closes for Super Wawa rebuild | 672 Berlin-Cross Keys Rd at Johnson Rd | No confirmed demolition or opening date |
| March 2 | 7 Brew Coffee grand opening | 528 Berlin-Cross Keys Rd | Open |
| June 11 | Bobby Chez Famous Crabcakes opens | Berlin-Cross Keys Rd at Johnson Rd, former Matteo's Pasta space | Open |
| July 2 | Chick-fil-A reopens after rebuild | Cross Keys Rd, in front of Lowe's in the Target center | Open |
| September 8 and 10 | Banjara Indian Bistro opens for takeout, then dine-in | Former Rustico, 687-689 Berlin-Cross Keys Rd | Open |
| September 18 | Buffalo Wild Wings' expected final day | 627 Cross Keys Rd, Shoppes at Cross Keys | Closed |
| October 10 | Ross Dress for Less opens | Former Big Lots, Town Square Plaza, 465 Berlin-Cross Keys Rd | Scheduled |
The fastest openings moved into someone else's space
The clearest example is Bobby Chez. When the Matteo family retired last fall and closed Matteo's Pasta, the storefront at Johnson Road became available. Bobby Chez Famous Crabcakes opened there at 11 a.m. on Thursday, June 11, in the same center as Wine Warehouse, Tractor Supply, Jersey Goat and Friendly's. 42Freeway describes the opening as a relocation of the company's Sewell/Washington Township restaurant, which was a short drive away. So the crabcakes didn't come to the area for the first time this year. They moved a few miles into a storefront that had just opened up.
Banjara Indian Bistro took longer and moved once before opening. Owner Vaneet Chopra also runs Cross Culture in Haddonfield, which has been open for more than 17 years. He first announced Banjara for the former Matteo's Deli location at 673 Berlin Cross Keys Road, with a target of opening by April. According to South Jersey Food Scene, that plan fell through, and by March the business had signed a lease for the former Rustico Italian Restaurant at 687-689 Berlin Cross Keys Road, next to Gouldsburger's. A July opening was then expected, pending final inspections. In September, Chopra told the site that "it took longer than expected." Banjara started takeout and delivery on Tuesday, September 8, and dine-in on Thursday, September 10. The restaurant is BYOB. Chopra said a final grand opening with regular business hours would follow the next week. No exact date for that event has been published, so check the restaurant's own site before planning a dinner around it.
Even with the delays, Banjara's timeline was set by when a usable restaurant space came free and passed inspection. The bistro went from a lease in March to serving dinner in September without building anything from the ground up.
Ross needed an empty big box, and Town Square Plaza had one
Ross Dress for Less follows the same pattern on a bigger scale. 42Freeway first reported in January that Ross was likely heading for the former Big Lots on Cross Keys Road, between PetSmart and Planet Fitness. By June, a construction permit in the window named Ross. By early August, the facade had been repainted in Ross's white and blue while crews worked on the interior. The Sicklerville store is scheduled to open Saturday, October 10, on the same day as a Ross in Somers Point. Ross's own homepage was still advertising new stores opening that Saturday at the end of September.
The same 42Freeway report explains why. Ross has been taking over vacant big-box spaces in established shopping centers, where former Big Lots and Staples stores come with large floor plates, parking, visibility and steady shopper traffic. The space left by Big Lots is exactly what made this store possible. From the first report to opening day took about nine months, which is fast for a retailer that size.
Chick-fil-A shows what rebuilding on an existing site looks like. The Cross Keys Road restaurant, at the front of the Target center near Williamstown-Erial Road, closed for more than four months for an expansion and redesign and reopened July 2. That was a rebuild of a working restaurant on a site it already operated from, and it still took a full season.
7 Brew Coffee at 528 Berlin-Cross Keys Road is the year's one new building, and it shows why this project could move quickly. 42Freeway reported that the former bank building on that corner was demolished in October 2025. 7 Brew's core building is manufactured off-site and then placed on location, though the basement foundation, parking and curbing still had to be built on-site. Doren Development took the Winslow Township site from demolition to a fully developed, approved location in about four months, through freezing temperatures. The stand held preview weekends before its March 2 grand opening.
The Johnson Road corner shows the gap
Driving through the Johnson Road intersection right now shows the year's pattern in one place. On one side, Bobby Chez is open in a reused storefront. At 672 Berlin-Cross Keys Road sits the old Wawa, which has been closed since Monday, January 26.
The Wawa plan needs more than a new tenant or a building made off-site. Winslow Township approved the redevelopment two years ago. It calls for demolishing the existing small shopping center and the legacy store, then building a new 5,600-square-foot Wawa in the middle of the site, with gas pumps and a canopy along Berlin Cross Keys Road and stormwater basins at the back. In January, 42Freeway reported that there was no confirmed timeline for demolition or reopening. It called an opening before the end of 2026 a reasonable expectation, not a commitment. We could not find a newer dated update on demolition or construction. Until Wawa or the township announces one, the opening date is unknown.
In the meantime, the January report notes that the Royal Farms with gas pumps directly across Johnson Road is a few hundred feet away. Grocery Outlet is across Berlin Cross Keys Road.
The newest vacancy is at the Shoppes at Cross Keys
The cycle continues in the other direction too. Buffalo Wild Wings at 627 Cross Keys Road, in the Shoppes at Cross Keys, closed this fall. Its expected final day was Friday, September 18, the weekend after the NFL season opened. 42Freeway noticed the space being marketed for lease by Metro Commercial before the closing was confirmed. Employees were offered positions at other South Jersey locations. The company's statement:
We have made the difficult decision to close our restaurant at 627 Cross Keys Road. We want to thank our guests and the community for their support and patronage over the years. We appreciate the opportunity to have served you and encourage you to continue visiting us at our nearby location at 1598 Nixon Drive.
NJ.com covered the closing as well. The building sits in a dining cluster with Texas Roadhouse, Sakura Japanese Steakhouse and the recently opened First Watch. That is the kind of ready-to-use restaurant space that let Bobby Chez and Banjara open this year. If this year's pattern holds, the next tenant will likely open there well before anyone breaks ground at the Wawa site.
October on and around the corridor
Ross opens on Saturday, October 10, which is also the rain date for Winslow Township's fall festival. The rest of the month's township calendar, with dates as posted:
- Winslow Township Fall Festival & Fire Prevention Week at Miller's Farm, 134 North Grove Street, Berlin. It was listed for Saturday, October 3, with October 10 as the rain date, and includes hayrides, fire-safety demonstrations and seasonal activities.
- Gloucester Township's 7th Annual Food & Craft Beer Festival on Saturday, October 17, from 2 to 7 p.m. at 15 S. Black Horse Pike in Blackwood. The rain date is October 18, and the township lists admission as free.
- Gloucester Township Trunk-or-Treat at Veteran's Park on Friday, October 23, at 7 p.m., with Sunday, October 25 as the rain date. Check the event page for weather updates before heading out.
- Winslow Township trick-or-treat hours on Saturday, October 31, from noon to 5 p.m., according to the township's October 5 notice.
For a weeknight dinner that fits around the calendar, all three of this year's restaurant arrivals are within a short drive of each other on the same road. Bobby Chez is at Johnson Road, Banjara is beside Gouldsburger's at the former Rustico, and the rebuilt Chick-fil-A is in front of Lowe's. For coffee on the way, 7 Brew is at 528 Berlin-Cross Keys Road.
Seeing which spaces fill quickly and which sit empty is part of how Quandell Iglesia follows Sicklerville. That includes the closed Wawa lot at Johnson Road and the newly listed space at the Shoppes at Cross Keys. If you have a question about what's happening near your street, or want to talk through what a change on the corridor could mean for your plans, let's connect.
