Work has begun on the site of the former Penn Monroe in Monroeville, after a proposed development there stalled several years ago.

Key Development has proposed anchoring the property with a grocery store along with a bank, sit-down restaurant and drive-through restaurant.

Steve Panko, representing Key Development, told Monroeville planning commissioners there are plans to bring an Aldi as well as a 140-seat Mission Barbeque restaurant to the location. The proposed Key Bank would include an ATM lane as well as two drive-through lanes. The final building would be a Taco Bell, relocating from its current spot in the Miracle Mile shopping center.

An earlier proposal to develop the property was approved in 2018, but it was delayed as developers tried to locate more than 40,000 tons of dirt to fill in the site of the former Penn Monroe, which was demolished in early 2017.

The former developer, Zokaites Properties, sold the parcel to Key Development in 2021 for just over $6.1 million.

In November 2021, Key Development officials received permission from Monroeville to divide the property into two parcels of 2.2 and 2.5 acres.

The development would have two entrances, one coming off William Penn Highway and another from Duff Road.

Chris Perry, from Woolpert Engineering’s Pittsburgh office, said that upper area between the shopping center and nearby residences would have a “significant” amount of new landscaping, as well as a five-foot screen fence and a guardrail along the curb line.

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