Arby’s opens in Kelly Township along Route 15 corridor

Arby’s opened Monday at 190 International Drive in Kelly Township, adding another national-chain option to the Route 15 corridor between Hampton Inn and Sheetz. The Lewisburg-area site sits in the same building as Popeyes, which opened there in December, creating a paired fast-food stop that is aimed as much at commuters and hotel guests as at local diners.

The opening gives Point Brands its 40th Arby’s location across Pennsylvania and New York, a sign that the company’s footprint in the region is still expanding. Point Brands is owned by Field Failing and Peter Scala, and it bought the Lewisburg property in April after nearly three years of development by the previous owner. The company also operates Arby’s restaurants in Shamokin Dam, Bloomsburg and Jersey Shore.

The new store matters because Kelly Township and Lewisburg have become one of Union County’s most visible quick-service clusters. Kelly Township had 3,994 residents in the 2020 census and is also home to the U.S. Penitentiary, Lewisburg, which helps explain the steady traffic along International Drive and AJK Boulevard. A township conditional-use application for the development was first noticed in August 2022, and PennDOT followed with a $3 million resurfacing project on Route 15 in Lewisburg Borough and Kelly Township that began April 10, 2023, underscoring how heavily traveled the corridor has become.

That growth sits alongside a different kind of development just a few miles away in Lewisburg Borough, where the state designated downtown as a Keystone Communities Main Street. The contrast is clear: the borough’s revitalization centers on Main Street, while the township’s growth is being built around highway access, lodging and chain restaurants. For independent eateries in and around Lewisburg, that means more competition for the lunch and dinner crowd that now has an easier on-and-off stop along Route 15.

The new Arby’s also changes how the corridor functions. With Popeyes already in place and Hampton Inn next door, the site can draw a larger share of commuter spending, traveler meals and quick takeout trips without requiring drivers to head deeper into town. In a county where every new restaurant opening is closely watched, the Kelly Township location is another concrete marker that the Route 15 business belt is still filling in.