This fall, several storefronts in downtown North Wales are changing at once. A brewery near the train station has announced it will close. A Main Street empanada shop closed and reopened under new owners. An empty restaurant building is weighing six possible tenants. Through all of it, the things that keep a weekend in North Wales feeling like North Wales are mostly public: a Sunday market on Summit Street, a pumpkin display at Weingartner Park, a former church that now hosts puppet shows. The borough is now asking residents how to build the next two years of downtown around those spaces.
Two Storefronts Moving in Opposite Directions
Ten7 Brewing Company opened in October 2018 at 510 Beaver Street, near the North Wales SEPTA station. On September 22, 2026, its owners posted on Facebook that the taproom would close within the next few months. The name explains the timing. "10-7" is a first-responder code for out of service. Co-founder Bob Heger retired in May 2021 after more than 25 years in police work and 21 years in the military. He and his partners Joanne Heger, Karen Coleman and Gerry Viglietti wrote that it was time for Ten7 to "go out-of-service and retire."
As of North Penn Now's September 23 report, the owners had not set a closing date and said the taproom would stay open for the next few months. The brewery's website still lists regular weekly hours. Its social media accounts are the better place to check before a last visit for one of the hazy IPAs or fruited sours it became known for.
Three blocks of Main Street tell the opposite story. Empanada Noshery at 119 N. Main Street closed in June after three years in business. It was then sold to Mario Alvarez and Hilda Guerra, who said they would keep the original recipes. Eat Drink Montco reported that the shop reopened on Tuesday, August 4, under its original name. It still bakes its empanadas instead of frying them, and the menu still centers on Puerto Rican and Dominican flavors such as Caribbean beef and guava. The online order page currently lists Dorian's Tinga, Matthew's Quesibirria and a crab Rangoon option.
| Storefront | Address | Status as of early fall 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Ten7 Brewing Company | 510 Beaver St. | Closing within months, no date set |
| Empanada Noshery | 119 N. Main St. | Reopened Aug. 4, open Tue.–Sat., 11:30 a.m.–6 p.m. |
| Former restaurant building | Main St., address not disclosed | Six potential renters under discussion |
The Building With Six Possible Tenants
The third row has the fewest details and the most potential. At the September 8 council meeting, Council President Mark Tarlecki said one of the borough's former restaurant buildings on Main Street had six potential renters. The concepts included a Texas-style barbecue and an Italian market. The minutes did not name the building or its former restaurant. No published report has identified it since, so for now it is simply an empty dining room that several operators have asked about.
That interest matters because of how residents describe the area around it. When the borough asked people to describe Walnut and Main streets, the answers, as reported by The Reporter Online, included "busy," "traffic," "businesses" and "potential." Tarlecki explained the last word directly. "Some people feel we haven't reached our potential yet," he said. When a vacancy draws six inquiries, at least some business owners appear to see the same potential.
A few blocks away, the former McKeever's Tavern at Fifth and Walnut has been empty much longer. It was built in the 1890s as the Colonial Inn and closed as a tavern in early 2014. In June 2026, Borough Manager Christine Hart said the demolition permit was "forthcoming." Owner Greg Flynn said he was working with a demolition contractor and tentatively hoped to submit a demolition package later that month. His most recent plan, first described in July 2025, would replace the building with a four-story building containing 35 apartments. Each proposal for that site over the past decade has gone through the borough, so residents can follow what happens next on the same council agendas.
What About 90 Residents Told the Borough
The clearest picture of what downtown is becoming comes from the borough's streetscape survey. It asks what would improve "the look, feel and function" of downtown North Wales. By early September, about 90 people had responded. Nearly all lived in the borough, and over 60 percent had lived there for more than ten years.
Asked what gives North Wales its identity, respondents named events, buildings and architecture. They also named two landmarks, the train station and Weingartner Park, and the new farmers market. None of the storefronts made that list. The things people identified with the town are places anyone can use without buying anything.
Their top three priorities pointed the same way.
- More trees and landscaping
- More sidewalks
- Slower traffic and less speeding
The biggest barriers to visiting downtown were lack of vehicle parking and sidewalk condition. Parking came with a comparison. The borough's model towns are Ambler, Doylestown, Skippack and Lansdale, and Borough Manager Christine Hart noted that Skippack is the only one without metered parking. "We don't want to overlook that some of these towns we're asking to mimic, would be huge changes for North Wales," she said.
Officials also discussed murals. Tarlecki mentioned the side of the firehouse on the 100 block of Main Street. Hart pointed to the Pennsylvania Avenue pedestrian bridge near the North Wales Area Library. PennDOT has jurisdiction over the bridge but could allow local decorations, and the North Wales Historic Commission has a photo of the day it opened.
"We have a ways to go on this. This is almost a two-year project for us." Council President Mark Tarlecki, September 2026
The survey was set to stay open through the end of September so the borough could collect responses at Community Day on September 26. The tallied results are scheduled for the October Planning Commission meeting before they go to council. Residents who want to see how the final answers compare with the early ones should watch for that meeting.
The Public Spaces Holding the Fall Calendar
The places survey respondents named are also where most of this season's events happen. The Main Street North Wales farmers market, the one new to this year's survey answers, finishes its first season this month. It runs on Summit Street between 2nd and 4th streets, Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., through October 25. That leaves four Sundays from today. At the September council meeting, Councilmember Anji Fazio mentioned the chessboards the Parks and Recreation Board had set out among the vendors.
The North Wales Arts and Cultural Center is now more than a year old. It occupies the former St. Luke's church at 125 N. Main Street, which the borough owns, and it opened on June 30, 2025. The borough rents it out as a banquet hall and uses it as a performing-arts venue. Town officials have pointed to the center and its adjacent public parking lot as one way they have tried to address the parking concern survey respondents raised.
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Sundays through Oct. 25 | Farmers market, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. | Summit St., 2nd to 4th streets |
| Saturday, Oct. 24 | Jack-O-Lantern Crawl. Pumpkin setup 4–5 p.m., cider and voting stroll 5–7 p.m. | Weingartner Park |
| Sunday, Dec. 13 | "The Giving Snowman," Reach for the Stars Puppet Productions, 2 p.m. | North Wales Arts and Cultural Center |
| December, date not set | Possible one-day winter market | Not yet announced |
The winter market is only an idea for now. The September minutes say it is "potentially" being planned. The puppet show includes a pre-show introduction to the handmade stage and a backstage look at the puppets afterward.
Getting Downtown Through the Road Work
The streetscape plan is still two years out, but sidewalk and street work, the same things respondents asked for, is already underway. PennDOT has weekday flagger-controlled lane closures on Walnut Street between Swartley and West streets from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., running from July 23 through December 31, weather permitting. For a weekday lunch at Empanada Noshery or a last pour at Ten7, planning a route around that stretch can save time.
On August 11, council awarded the 2026 borough paving contract to A.H. Cornell and Sons for $571,301.10. The bid schedule set a September 1 notice to proceed and an October 31 completion target. Separately, a $770,000 PennDOT grant will fund sidewalk and ADA accessibility work on Center Street from Walnut Street to Washington Avenue, and on West Street from Shearer Street to Montgomery Avenue. The borough's project update does not list construction dates.
The sidewalks people ranked second in the survey are already funded on two streets. The vacant Main Street building has six potential tenants. Residents who come to the October Planning Commission meeting can see what the full survey results add to those plans.
If downtown North Wales is changing near your own front door and you want to talk through what the streetscape plan, the new businesses or the empty buildings could mean for your street, The Andrea Szlavik Team is glad to share what we are tracking, with no pressure. Schedule a consultation whenever it suits you.
