Ardmore Started Opening Before the Station Did. Now the Construction Has Moved Down Lancaster.

Gouldsburger's opened at 4 Station Rd. in February, across from a train station that was still a construction site. Trains in both directions were still boarding from temporary platforms. Philadelphia-bound riders used the Ardmore West Lot, Paoli-bound riders climbed to a platform above the Suburban Square parking lot, and the station lot behind Ardmore Music Hall was closed. The rebuilt station didn't return to service until March 23.

The opening dates show the storefronts filled in on their own schedule, starting before the work was done. The construction itself never left either. It moved a few blocks along Lancaster Avenue, where it's scheduled to stay into 2028.

Six Years at the Center of Town

When SEPTA approved the rebuild in 2019, it budgeted 2½ years and $62 million for raised platforms, ramps, elevators and new waiting areas, and set completion for early 2022. Then came the pandemic shutdown and supply-chain delays. Crews could only work in four- to six-hour overnight shifts. Demolition also turned up surprises, including an unknown oil tank and an outbound elevator tower that had to be redesigned, according to reporting in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

In that Inquirer story, business owners near the station described lost foot traffic, blocked delivery access and customers who couldn't find parking. While the station lot was closed, loading and unloading moved onto Lancaster Avenue. Alec Hersh, executive director of the Downtown Ardmore District, told the paper that "when the central hub of your town is a construction site, it tends to keep people away."

SEPTA and Amtrak held the ribbon-cutting on April 10, and Amtrak describes the station as complete, serving both Regional Rail and Keystone Service.

The Openings Ran Ahead of the Ribbon-Cutting

By July 7, the Inquirer counted a dozen new businesses in downtown Ardmore for the year. The Downtown Ardmore District's own count, reported by Main Line Media News on July 20, was 10 openings so far in 2026 with three more on the way. The district counted 11 for all of 2025. The two counts don't line up exactly, but they agree on one thing. Ardmore matched about a full year of openings in roughly half a year.

The order they arrived in matters more than the total:

1. January: Bikini Burger at 44 Rittenhouse Pl., opened by Penn Valley resident Mia Robertson. Bored Trading Café at 43 Cricket Ave. held its grand opening the same month.
2. February: Gouldsburger's at 4 Station Rd., directly across from the station construction.
3. March: Jersey Mike's at 20 Greenfield Ave. and Mila's Pup Tienda, a cat and dog supply shop at 18 E. Lancaster Ave. opened by Ardmore resident Dayanna Cardenas.
4. April: CorePower Yoga at 169 W. Lancaster Ave., Revivéa Health at 20 Ardmore Ave., and Raffs Italian Cuisine, a BYOB, at 65 Cricket Ave.
5. May: Just Salad at 167 W. Lancaster Ave. and Barizi, a home and gift store, at 29 W. Lancaster Ave.
6. June: OGYU Japanese BBQ at 60 Greenfield Ave., from Osushi owner Sam Li.

Three of those openings came in January and February, while riders were still boarding from temporary platforms. Gouldsburger's opened facing the work site itself, a month before anyone could ride a train from the new platforms.

Where the New Places Landed

Plotted by street, the openings spread across the whole district. The Downtown Ardmore District covers the Lancaster Avenue corridor plus Rittenhouse Place and parts of Ardmore, Greenfield and Cricket avenues.

Mango Mango at 38 Greenfield Ave. held its grand opening on July 31. That same week, the Inquirer reported that Half A While at 22 W. Lancaster Ave. had recently opened. The newest name on Cricket Avenue is Vintner's Table at 24 Cricket Ave., an Italian-style wine bar and restaurant that Patch reported open on October 14. It's the third Vintner's Table, after Phoenixville and Wyomissing, and its wine is produced at Folino Estate in Kutztown.

The Cricket Avenue row is the densest change of the year. In about ten months it gained an all-day bagel and sandwich café, a seven-night BYOB Italian dining room and a wine bar.

A District Rebuilt for People on Foot

All of this filling in came as the organization behind downtown remade itself. The group began in the late 1980s under Pennsylvania's Main Street Program and operated as Ardmore 2000, then as the Ardmore Initiative. It has now renamed itself the Downtown Ardmore District. Hersh told Main Line Media News that when he arrived, people kept asking, "What's the Ardmore Initiative? What do you do?"

Its new programs are built for people walking downtown:

• The A-Team. These clean-and-green crews double as downtown ambassadors and are on the street Sunday through Friday, noon to 5. In 2025 they collected 13,500 bags of trash, planted more than 460 trees, plants and shrubs, and logged more than 800 interactions with visitors.
• Bus-stop benches. The district installed 24 of them, and Hersh said nearly every bus stop in the district now has seating.
• Wayfinding kiosks. These are pedestrian-sized signs with a downtown map and parking lots on one side and local history on the back. The one planned near Ardmore and Lancaster avenues will tell the story of the Autocar Co. factory. Autocar was founded in 1899, was the township's largest employer, closed in 1953 and burned in 1956.

The kiosks have funding now. On September 15, the district announced a $68,000 grant from Pennsylvania's Statewide Local Share Account program for five kiosks along Lancaster, Anderson and Cricket avenues. Merje Design in West Chester has spent the past 12 months on the design. In the district's announcement, bids from fabrication firms were still being collected, and completion was expected by the end of 2026.

Those signs are a direct answer to a complaint from the construction years. Hersh had told the Inquirer that the link between downtown and Suburban Square was already poor, and that the narrow sidewalks under the tracks discouraged shoppers further.

The Next Construction Site Is Already Up

The station's cones came down in March, and two months later Ardmore broke ground on a bigger project. The Piazza at Ardmore at 100 W. Lancaster Ave. is a $187 million mixed-use redevelopment replacing former car dealerships and a shuttered IHOP. The plan is a five-story building with 270 apartments and 30,000 square feet of retail. It broke ground in May and is scheduled for completion around February 2028. The groundbreaking coverage describes that retail space as intended for food and beverage, health and wellness, and specialty retail, and it names no tenants.

Other projects are further out. In March, Lower Merion's commissioners voted to receive concept plans for Schauffele Plaza and the adjacent Lot 6, including a narrower, redesigned Cricket Terrace. Receiving the plans did not commit the township to building or funding them. The station project also has a second phase on paper: a roughly 500-space garage with bus berthing. SEPTA says its timing depends on ridership, need and funding. Township documents cited by MONTCO Today anticipated completion by 2030, pending further approvals.

Ardmore spent six years with a work site at its rail hub, and it now has one on its main avenue through at least early 2028. The 2026 openings and the bus-stop benches arrived while one of those sites or the other was active, and the kiosks are scheduled to go in while the Piazza is still under construction.

Still Opening, and the Dates Before Year-End

Two businesses from the summer's coming-soon list are still on their way. Calm and Strong Yoga and Pilates at 46 Rittenhouse Pl. says on its website that the studio is under construction and aims to welcome members in December 2026. Pure Green, a cold-pressed juice shop at 56 E. Lancaster Ave., was reported in July as set to open in 2027.

Here's what's on the Downtown Ardmore District calendar:

• Friday, October 30, 5:30 to 8 p.m.: Trek Bicycle Ardmore's Halloween Trick-or-Treat Ride.
• Saturday, October 31, 8 p.m.: Halloween Bash at Mystic of the Main Line.
• Saturday, December 5, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: the Ardmore Holiday Market, curated by Art Star Bazaar, at Cricket Avenue and Lancaster Avenue.

The holiday market sits at the corner of Cricket and Lancaster, at the end of the block that changed most this year, a short walk from Vintner's Table, Raffs and Bored Trading Café.

If you own near Lancaster Avenue and want to know how the Piazza timeline, the new storefronts and a station that's finally finished factor into your home's value, the Houder Nunez-Strid Team can walk through it with you. Schedule a Confidential Market Consultation, and we'll start from your street.