Planning Board Delays Two Projects

THE BUFFALO NEWS
BY THOMAS J. PROHASKA – NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU

LOCKPORT – Plans for a Dunkin’ Donuts store and a business incubator building in the town industrial park were brought before the town Planning Board on Wednesday.

Both submissions were incomplete, and the board won’t act on them until next month at the earliest.

The 2,000-square-foot Dunkin’ Donuts store, Lockport’s second, is to be built at the corner of Dysinger Road and Beattie Avenue, on a vacant lot just west of Towne Square Plaza, directly across the road from Town Hall.

It’s also within sight of a Tim Hortons that opened a year ago.

Lois Stern of Bevilacqua Development, an Amherst company that owns the plaza, said the franchisee will be Tim Kloe, who owns several Dunkin’ Donuts stores in the region.

The main question facing the Planning Board appears to be where the driveway for the store should be. 
Stern said Kloe wants to relocate the plaza driveway to make it easier for drivers to make a quick decision to turn into his store once they see the sign.

However, town planner Fred Frank said the state Department of Transportation doesn’t want the driveway too close to the intersection, for safety reasons.

Frank also said a coordinated multi-agency review of the project would be needed if the driveway is moved, and a variance would be needed because the state’s right of way cuts through the curved lot.

Planning Board Chairman Richard Forsey said a public hearing would be needed on a special-use permit for the store’s drive-through lane.

Stern said the town approved a plan for a bank with a drive-through on the same lot 20 years ago, but the project was never built.

Meanwhile, plans for the 16,000-square-foot incubator were submitted by Jeffrey P. Lehrbach, chief financial officer of McGuire Development Co. of Buffalo.

The company and its partners expect a tax abatement agreement with the town’s Industrial Development Agency.

The building may be followed by a larger second phase, which is marked on plans as 28,000 square feet, but it could be as little as 20,000 square feet, Lehrbach said.

“Phase 2 could be a separate and distinct facility,” said Mark D. Molnar of Wendel Cos., another partner in the group. R&P Oak Hill is to be the builder.

The first phase would be built on a 3.3-acre site on Enterprise Drive, including a half-acre retention pond. The building would have 56 parking spaces. The second phase would use a 1.76-acre parcel and offer 45 parking spaces.

Although it’s envisioned as a place for small or startup businesses, there are other possibilities.

“With the Yahoo data center across the street, it gives us some gravitas. Maybe we’ll get a bigger fish,” Lehrbach said.

“It’s like shovel-ready on steroids. The town needs something like this,” board member Thomas F. Grzebinski II said.

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