CRANBERRY TWP — With a high number of donations and sales at its store on Route 19, Goodwill is planning a new, bigger store on Freedom Road.

The township planning commission Tuesday night approved conditional use and land development applications for a new Goodwill location on 5 acres near the intersection with Thorn Hill Road.

The land is being developed by Neyer and built to Goodwill’s specifications.

Bob Stape, vice president of retail for Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania, said the Route 19 store is leased through October of 2018 and it will remain open until then.

The organization will make a decision later about whether it will continue to operate both stores or just have the new one, he said.

The new store would be 23,900 square feet, including 12,000 square feet of sales floor space.

It would have a warehouse area, a conference room and offices where residents could get services that Goodwill provides such as helping people who are disabled or disadvantaged find jobs.

An expansion is needed because Cranberry is a growing community and the residents make good use of its current store.

“We’re really excited. So far Cranberry has been really good to Goodwill. It’s been great for donations and for customer experience,” Stape said.

Of the 31 Goodwill locations in Western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia, the Cranberry site is the top store, he said.

The Route 19 store is about 10,000 square feet and does not offer any services or programs. It also does not have enough parking and cannot accommodate tractor-trailers.

The new location would have 100 parking spaces, a two-lane drive-through for dropping off donations and could accept deliveries from tractor-trailers.

Stape said that construction is expected to take five months, and Goodwill hopes to have the store open by February or March of next year. It would have about 80 employees.

Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania serves eight counties in Pennsylvania and nine counties in West Virginia, according to its website.

The proposal will go before the township supervisors in July.