McFarlan's Market, awaited since 2014, finally debuts in Collingswood

COLLINGSWOOD – An upscale food market — once expected to arrive here by the spring of 2015 and again by early 2016 — is finally opening this week.

The arrival of McFarlan’s Market fulfills a vision for its husband-and-wife operators — and for borough officials who have long sought to reclaim a blighted property in the downtown business district.

“We’re excited — and terrified,” said Peter Burgess, who with his wife, Janet Stevens, invested more than $1 million in the project.

“We’re thrilled to have them,” declared Mayor James Maley, a key player in the six-year turnaround effort.

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“It’s been a long struggle,” added the mayor, who has described conditions at the former grocery, National Food Market, as “deplorable.”

“We’re happy they stayed in it,” he said.

The new store, to have its official opening Saturday, represents an expansion from an existing McFarlan’s Market in Merchantville, Burgess and Stevens noted.

Both stores will offer grocery items, deli meats, sandwiches, salads and a butcher.

But the 4,000-square-foot Collingswood store will support a larger kitchen and more refrigerated storage. The couple expect substantial sales from takeout dishes, like their specialty pot pies, and a new catering service.

“It’s a lot more than just a corner store,” Stevens said of the shop at Haddon and Washington avenues.

“People will be able to walk to get groceries,” she observed. “They’ll also bring home prepared meals.

The store also has café seating for about 25 people.

Improvements at the site were a big factor in the long build-up to opening day, said Stevens.

“The water line is the same but everything else is new,” she said.

The planned turnaround seemed well underway in August 2014, when Collingswood's commissioners approved the purchase of the property.

The borough, which had been working to acquire the grocery for two years, then was to sell the building for $400,00 to Burgess and Stevens.

The couple were recruited to Collingswood by Maley, who was a customer at their Merchantville store.

“He’s been after us since (the Merchantville store opened in) 2010,” Burgess said.

But environmental issues delayed the sale until July 2015, when Burgess and Stevens predicted renovations could be completed in about six months.

Then, problems with a utility and other headaches repeatedly pushed back the schedule.

Another reason things went slowly: Both Burgess and Stevens have other jobs.

He’s a surveyor for Burlington County, while she runs a commercial-industrial real estate business with a family member.

“This is something we want to do,” Burgess said of the couple’s grocery sideline. “Now I just have to figure out why.”

Jim Walsh: @jimwalsh_cp; 856-486-2646; jwalsh@gannettnj.com

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