Walnut Grill coming to Monroeville

Monroeville can expect to see the first Walnut Grill restaurant in the East suburbs in about 18 months.

The restaurant will anchor the new Penn Monroe Shops retail center at 3985 William Penn Highway, the site of the former Penn Monroe Grille, which closed last year.

Developer Zokaites Properties LP of Wexford has owned the six-plus-acre parcel since 2015 and is in the process of putting fill into the site to get it ready for construction, a company spokesperson said.

The center, which the Monroeville Planning Commission approved in July, will be anchored by a 7,000-square-foot Walnut Grill, which has locations in Wexford, Robinson Township, Fox Chapel and Bridgeville, as well as three restaurants in Missouri.

Zokaites, which also owns the nearby former Churchill Valley Country Club site, is planning a 29,000-square-foot retail center that could include a bank and possibly a grocery store, the company said.

An architectural rendering shows plans for two small tenants, one medium-size tenant and one large tenant. Zokaites kept the Penn Monroe name because the site had been so well known, the spokesperson said.

Zokaites will be handling the leasing of Penn Monroe in house and the company is also speaking with convenience store chains about coming to the center, she added.

The bulk of Zokaites' developments are residential.

Suzanne Elliott is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.