A vacant Wells Fargo branch on Church Road in Mount Laurel could soon become a Dunkin', but the plan first needs township officials to bend zoning rules for a residential stretch of road where businesses currently aren't allowed. The Pittsgrove-based developer behind the proposal is asking the Mount Laurel zoning board for a use variance to build the coffee and doughnut chain's drive-thru at 4523 Church Road, near the township's border with Evesham.
A Bank's Second Life, If Approved
The site has sat empty since Wells Fargo closed its branch there, and now Siya Kinjal LLC wants to convert the old bank building and its existing drive-through lanes into a 2,999-square-foot restaurant, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Because the property sits in a residential zone where businesses aren't permitted, the developer needs more than a simple sign-off — the application also calls for preliminary and final major site plan approval plus bulk variances. The case is expected to go before the zoning board in November, the Inquirer's report states.
Neighbors living on Camelot Court, directly across Church Road from the old bank, will be among those watching closely. The proposal would use the site's existing drive-through lanes. The outlet 42 Freeway notes that the parcel sits near where Church Road, Green Tree Road and Maple Avenue all converge, a junction already busy with local traffic.
What the Traffic Study Found
A traffic study commissioned by the developer and prepared by McDonough & Rea Associates Inc. of Manasquan projects the new Dunkin' would generate 130 inbound and 120 outbound vehicle trips during the morning peak hour. The same study forecasts 109 inbound and 114 outbound trips during the Saturday peak hour, figures the zoning board is expected to weigh alongside site-access and neighborhood concerns at the November hearing, the Inquirer's report states.
Property records cited in the application show the land is currently owned by 4523 Church Road Associates LLC, based on Saw Mile Drive in Mount Laurel. Siya Kinjal LLC's ownership was listed in the filing as Gulu Puri of Marlton and Ashwin Chaudhary of Pittsgrove. Separately, 42 Freeway points out that a Dunkin' location already operates close by, on the opposite side of the same intersection — though it's unclear what relationship, if any, that existing shop would have to the proposed new one.
Part of a Broader Bank-to-Business Trend
Mount Laurel's proposal isn't happening in a vacuum. Across New Jersey, developers have repurposed dozens of former bank branches into offices, restaurants and other businesses as the properties sit idle, according to New Jersey Monthly. The magazine notes that older bank buildings are often seen as prime adaptive-reuse candidates simply because of their prominent locations, even once they've become functionally obsolete as branches close.
A similar conversion has already played out in Bucks County, where a former PNC Bank branch on West Trenton Avenue in Falls Township became vacant after PNC closed branches amid the shift to online banking, according to phillyburbs.com. That outlet reported PNC shuttered 17 to 22 branches early in 2025, a number that could climb to 40 by year's end. Falls Township supervisors ultimately gave unanimous approval for a Dunkin' drive-thru at that site, a decision Levittown Now reported would reuse the existing drive-thru lanes with only minor exterior changes, plus added tree plantings and landscaping. The franchisee there still needs to submit a separate land development plan for review, the site noted in an earlier report on the MYNB LLC application.
What's Next for the Church Road Site
The Mount Laurel proposal still needs a use variance, along with preliminary and final major site plan approval and bulk variances, before it can move forward.
Whether Mount Laurel's zoning board grants, denies or further delays the Church Road application remains to be seen when the case comes before the board in November. For now, the vacant Wells Fargo building sits waiting, part of a wider pattern of banks-turned-businesses playing out from South Jersey to Bucks County to Plainfield, where Landmark Hospitality turned a former Plainfield Trust Company building into the 8,000-square-foot event space Banq on Parq back in 2022.
