Amherst, N.Y. (WBEN) - A pair of highly-anticipated projects are inching closer to commencing in the coming weeks in the Town of Amherst.
First, Costco Wholesale has purchased its space along North Bailey Avenue, paying $6 million to secure the 16.6 acre plot, their first location in Western New York. The retail warehouse is expected to cost nearly $22.5 million to build.
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Amherst Town Supervisor Brian Kulpa says Costco has also picked up their permit and filed with the county, which should give them the green light to officially get going with construction.
"We're excited, because we want to see that obviously pop up out of the ground. But we've also done a lot of work, and have been doing a lot of work over that area on sewer and road construction," said Kulpa in an interview with WBEN. "We recently taken on the project with the state to enhance the intersections at Niagara Falls Boulevard and Ridge Lea, Niagara Falls Boulevard and Romney, with MyoVision, which is a product the town's been using for a long time for traffic mitigation. And we're getting ready to gear up and soon, hopefully, be able to talk about what's happening next at Maple and Bailey. So lots of good stuff happening in that area of town, and obviously Costco is sort of the icing on the cake over in that plaza."
While Kulpa knows Costco will still need to break ground for foundations for the warehouse, he says they can start construction at any time. He adds the timeline for the project still has Costco set to open sometime in the spring of 2026, pending no hiccups in the construction process.
Once construction for Costco gets going and picks up, Kulpa does anticipate traffic in that area to pick up once again. However, Kulpa points to a number of other projects slated in-and-around that area in the months to come that could cause some backups.
"Obviously there's a lot of construction on Ridge Lea, it's been like that for about a year, so we anticipate that's going to continue. We've got some future planned water line work at Sweet Home and Maple. We've got plans for sewer construction up Sweet Home. There's a lot of work going into that area, and eventually we're hoping at some point in the not too distant future we'll see the [Boulevard] Mall site enter the mix too," Kulpa noted. "But a little ways to go still on the process on that project, but good things throughout the corridor and throughout the Niagara Falls Boulevard district, all the way down to Station Twelve at Sheridan."
Speaking of Station Twelve, Kulpa notes the developers of the site have asked for an expedited review on the permits for the next two buildings, one of them with foundations already being visible on site.
"We're moving fast as a town to try to get through the permit approval process there, assuming that everything is submitted correctly. Then we'll hopefully see them start work this fall as well, that's the hope," Kulpa said. "That'll be adding two more buildings to the mix, which indicates the direction they're heading with tenants and build-outs. So a lot of good things around the Boulevard and on the West side of town."
Kulpa says Station Twelve remains on time after WS Development and the town had to wrap their heads around how mutually to get things restarted there after an assessment dispute a year ago.
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"I'm happy to say that it's moving forward, and we've got a lot of good things happening throughout the town," Kulpa noted. "You see projects on between North Forest and Audubon, new residential projects going up on Millersport, seeing subdivisions and new homes going up along New Road. We're still enjoying this push forward, if you will, as a town with economic development, and it's been great. We've seen huge increases in that new property value that's come online, and new businesses doing business here. We want to just continue to see the town progress forward the way that it has, and continue to see an uptick in economic activity."
Kulpa adds the uptick in economic activity is a positive for the Town of Amherst and for the region, and really puts a lot of value into the community.
"The reason we're able to take on improvements in our culturals and improvements in our town services, whether it's the current Town Board or the past Town Boards I've been affiliated with, everybody's understood that, 'Hey, if we're going to have investment and we're going to see investment in the community, then we need to be able to take that investment and turn it into opportunities for better ways to live and better opportunities for our residents.' It's just been a good, wonderful opportunity here with some of these companies investing in the West side of Amherst, and we continue to grow," he said.
As Kulpa works through the final months of his tenure as Amherst Town Supervisor, he is grateful to see a number of these projects get to a point where some of the important elements to get them going are crossing the finish line. However, he acknowledges how much still remains to get done in such little time.
"I'm fortunate my deputy supervisor, Shawn Lavin, and Jackie Berger and I have been together for the past two terms, and have been working hard and trying to make sure we could see some of these things get across finish lines. We're close on some of those things, and we're hoping that a couple of the other pieces are far enough along that we can see that work continue it to the future," Kulpa said. "It's been very gratifying the opportunities that we've had, co-mingling with business and private investment, and then translating that into improved services and improved access to services."