In the News

A new Panera Bread will be built at the former home of Rockvale Diner in the Shops at Rockvale. The work is part of an overhaul of the Route 30 shopping center that will add new housing.

Panera Bread to open next year in new building in Shops at Rockvale
Chad Umble, Staff Writer, Lancaster Online
Oct 8, 2023

The construction of a new Panera Bread will be the first step in the $120 million makeover of the Shops at Rockvale that’s slated to replace half the East Lampeter Township shopping center with housing.

New Jersey-based Fernmoor Homes, which is remaking the Route 30 shopping center, will begin construction next month of the new Panera Bread at the corner of Route 30 and South Willowdale Drive, Fernmoor Homes President Jeffrey Fernbach said.

A spokesperson for Panera Bread confirmed that the new restaurant, which is slated to open in mid-2024, will replace the Panera Bread in the Target-anchored Covered Bridge Marketplace just east of Rockvale.

Retail Sites, the New Jersey-based developer and broker that manages Covered Bridge Marketplace, is now seeking a new tenant for the 4,000-square-foot building currently occupied by Panera Bread.

The new Panera Bread at Rockvale will be built on the site of the former home of Rockvale Diner, which closed in January 2020 and was torn down this past spring. Rockvale Diner originally opened in June 2016, taking a spot previously occupied by Bob Evans.