Demolition work restarts at Penn Daw Plaza

Demolition work has resumed at the former Penn DawPlaza shopping, as equipment belonging to the Berg Corporation could be seen working on Wednesday.

After months of inaction, a new contractor has restarted demolition at the former Penn Daw Plaza shopping center.

The Baltimore-based Berg Corporation is now the permit holder for the site, and their equipment has been taking down parts of the old shopping center this week.

A representative for Berg could not be reached Wednesday.

Combined Properties owns the Penn Daw Plaza property in the 6200 block of North Kings Highway. The former shopping center is slated to become a mixed-use development called South Alex, consisting of 400 apartments, 41 townhouses and 44,000 square feet of retail space.

Combined started demolition work on Penn Daw Plaza in mid-June. But work stopped in July, and Clark Builders, the original contractor doing the demo, parted with Combined. Much of the old structure, as well as piles of rubble, have remained standing at the site since then.

The work stoppage coincided with an August report in the Washington Business Journal that said The Fresh Market, long rumored to be the anchor grocery store at South Alex, was no longer looking at the location. Combined confirmed this to a local neighborhood civic association in recent weeks, and said they were still searching for a grocer.

Berg specializes in demolition and is not a building contractor; it remains unclear when construction of the South Alex project will begin. In April, a representative from Combined told Covering the Corridor that the townhouses would be the first part of the development to be built, with completion expected sometime between 2018 and 2019.

Repeated recent attempts to reach Combined have been unsuccessful.