MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — The Chipotle Mexican Grill at Gettysburg Pike and South Market Street opens Thursday, and the developer that built it bills it as the first restaurant in Pennsylvania done in the chain’s new “Habanero” design. Chipotle gave that title to a different town first.
In a statement in December, the company said it planned to make Irwin, a Westmoreland County borough, the first site in Pennsylvania with the new interior style, WTAE reported. Irwin Borough Council approved the plan for the former Denny’s at 9174 Route 30 on Jan. 14, and an engineer for Chipotle told the planning commission work could be done by fall, TribLIVE reported. Chipotle’s store locator listed 157 Pennsylvania restaurants Tuesday, none in Irwin. The Upper Allen store looks set to get there first.
The 2,385-square-foot restaurant at 215 Gettysburg Pike sits in The Mills at Shepherdstown Crossing, the mixed-use development Camp Hill-based Linlo Properties has been assembling on roughly seven acres in Upper Allen Township.
PennLive, which first reported the date, said it opens Sept. 10 and will run 10:45 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Keller Contracting of Mechanicsburg, the general contractor, posted a walk-through of the finished space to Facebook on Sept. 2, saying the job was “just about ready for opening day on September 10th.”
Ground was broken March 19. The Habanero design is an updated interior and a rearranged kitchen built around digital and mobile orders, including a Chipotlane drive-thru for app pickups. Chipotle said the style uses new materials, textures, and artwork that reflect the brand’s history. The menu and food preparation do not change.
“Projects like this highlight the continued growth and energy in the Mechanicsburg area,” Linlo Properties President and CEO Lowell Gates said in a statement at the groundbreaking.
The economic figures circulated that day came from the developer: a typical Chipotle creates 30 to 50 jobs, an estimated $3 million in annual sales, and $1 million to $1.8 million in construction costs, according to the release reported by the Central Penn Business Journal.
The company’s own results supply the scale. Chipotle opened 100 company-owned restaurants in the second quarter, 80 of them with a Chipotlane, and told investors on July 29 it expects 350 to 370 openings for the full year, 10 to 15 of them international.
The pad it occupies was drawn for a different chain. Shannon Rosenko of Alpha Consulting Engineers, appearing for Linlo, told Upper Allen commissioners on Oct. 1, 2025, that the revised plan covered Unit 5, “which was previously proposed as a Burger King fast-food restaurant.” Commissioner Phil Walsh moved to approve the preliminary/final plan, file PZ2508-07, subject to conditions in a Sept. 22, 2025 staff memo; the vote was unanimous. The township lists the plan as recorded Dec. 12, 2025.
The minutes also carry a description of the store that does not match what opens Thursday. Commissioner Eric Fairchild said the Chipotle would be “an automated restaurant” that “will only accept orders via their app, with drive-thru pickup available” — a point he raised, the minutes say, as possibly assuaging concerns about traffic. Chipotle’s listing for the address advertises in-store pickup and delivery. John Murphy of Alpha told the board the firm’s engineer, Mark Allen, found no net traffic change from the prior approval.
Growth is the township’s standing argument. Save Upper Allen, the residents’ group organized against what it calls overdevelopment, ties the tax increase from 0.25 to 2.75 mills to two decades of building approvals. Fairchild started the group’s website in 2023 to support his and Walsh’s commissioner candidacies; both won, and Fairchild became board president on Jan. 5.
Both men stood in the groundbreaking photograph in March, alongside Commissioners Jennifer Clarke and Kenneth Martin and state Sen. Dawn Keefer. Keefer wrote on Facebook on March 23 that the investment “means new jobs, increased economic activity and more dining options for residents.”