West Coast Plaza: The Growth of a Small Town Plaza to Lifestyle Center

## 6/23/2023 11:27 AM

**WEST COAST, MINECRAFT**

You may have noticed the massive growth of the West Coast Plaza lately. The owners, Pillar Real Estate purchased the shopping center from local owners in 2022 with plans to renovate the shopping center into a lifestyle center to bring more traffic to Route 6. In this article, we are gonna take you on a journey to the history of West Coast Plaza, how much changes it went through and the growth it is going through now with multiple outparcel lots and even an expansion to the original shopping center. The journey begins when the lot was constructed on, the address at the time was known as 2000 Route 6 and the property on the lot was West Coast Baptist Church which opened in 1941, a little girl was an active member of the church, her name was Crystal Buros who became a significant figure in the West Coast area in the later years. At the time, West Coast was a small village unlike what it is now, with only a population of 425 people, most of the residents at the time lived in Village, Minecraft, which was a bigger area until it got annexed for Richmond Township (now Richmond) and some parts of West Coast. West Coast Baptist Church opened until 1970 when the church relocated to the brand new developed area, Downtown West Coast as the town began to grow with 9,000 people at the time. Crystal Buros decided the town needed a shopping center as most residents were shopping at the Village Plaza in Village, so her and the town hall came up with a plan to build the West Coast Plaza on the former site of West Coast Baptist Church. West Coast Plaza opened with a three tenant cobblestone material building which had tenants such as Old Navy, The Oak Store and Cobbler Express. In 1983, The Oak Store moved to Village Mall and Cobbler Express closed down. In 1989, Video USA opened in The Oak Store space. In 1990, Old Navy closed down and was replaced with Linens ‘N’ Things which relocated from the Village Mall. In 1991, Candy USA opened in the former Cobbler Express space as an expansion to Video USA. In 1993, two new buildings were built at West Coast Plaza, which were Kmart and Dippin’ Dots. In 1999, Eckerd built a new building at the plaza after relocating from the Village Mall, making West Coast Plaza have a total of six tenants. In 2002, West Coast Plaza Drive was constructed and became the official street for West Coast Plaza. In 2007, Eckerd closed and became Rite Aid. In 2010, Video USA and Candy USA closed and Linens ‘N’ Things took over the whole building, resulting in a name change to Linens & More For Less. Also in 2010 Kmart closed, and was split into four spaces which were CVS Pharmacy, Little Caesars, Magic Health and Once Upon a Child, making a total of seven tenants. Dippin’ Dots then closed and moved to Village Mall, the space then became Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins. In April 2018, the West Coast Plaza went through a massive remodel which demolished most of the original shopping center which was rebuilt. The shopping center opened with CVS Pharmacy, Little Caesars, AT&T, Burger King, Dairy Queen and Round 1. In 2019, Dairy Queen closed and was replaced with Monkey Salon, which also closed, the building was demolished and replaced with West Coast School. In June 2019, LIttle Caesars closed and Burger King relocated to a new outparcel, resulting in Plaza Dental Centers opening. Later in 2019, a brand new West Coast Plaza was built expanding the shopping center and adding more tenants. In 2022, the West Coast Plaza was completely redeveloped into a lifestyle center with plans to open more tenants as well as having more outparcel tenants with the new openings of McDonald’s and PNC Bank. West Coast Plaza is hoping to grow way more in the future.