Former Fifth Street Hardee's property sells for $3.5 million

The former Hardee’s fast food restaurant on Fifth Street Southwest will become a Wawa gas station and convenience store, selling the company’s signature hoagie sandwiches and allowing people to use ATMs without a fee. The Hardees’ building and 1.15 acres it sits upon have been sold for $3.5 million, according to Cushman & Wakefield — Thalhimer, which negotiated the sale on behalf of the buyer.

The site has been purchased by Riverbend Development from Boddie-Noell Enterprises, Inc., which owned all of the area’s now closed Hardee’s restaurants. Riverbend, the developers of Brookhill subdivision in Albemarle County and other local properties, will reportedly develop the site as the area’s third Wawa gas station and convenience store/restaurant.

The main building is proposed to be about 5,300 square feet, and the site will also have a slate of gas pumps covered by a large canopy.

Wawa currently has an outlet on U.S. 250 on Pantops Mountain and another off of U.S. 29 near Proffit Road, near the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport. Another Wawa has been proposed near U.S. 29 at Greenbrier Drive.

The convenience store chain, based in Pennsylvania, is one of the largest privately owned corporations in the country, priding itself on customer service, meatball hoagies and custom cappuccinos. Coffee is free on Tuesdays for Wawa reward members, according to the company’s website. Wawa has made major inroads in Florida in the past several years but has not expanded into other Deep South states.

The Fifth Street site is across from Willoughby Square Shopping Center at the corner of Fifth Street Southwest and Fifth Street Station Parkway, which leads to the 5th Street Station retail complex and also connects Avon Street Extended to Fifth Street.

The property was valued by the Charlottesville assessor in 2021 at $933,300 for the land and another $420,100 for the building, for a combined $1,353,400.

The building currently on the property was home to a Hardee’s since 1986. The restaurant chain closed its Charlottesville locations on U.S. 250, U.S. 29 and on Fifth Street Southwest in 2020. According to the hamburger chain’s national website, the closest Hardees are now in Gordonsville or Waynesboro.

Source: www.dailyprogress.com