Amherst, N.Y. (WBEN) - While it is mostly just an empty plot of land at this time, developers looking to build the first Costco in Western New York are preparing the final plans to commence construction work along North Bailey Avenue in the Town of Amherst.
Demolition work of the old UB annex buildings is nearly complete, according to Amherst Town Supervisor Brian Kulpa, and Benderson Development is putting together its final details into the project to build the retail giant its newest home in the region.
"They're up for site plan review again at the next planning board meeting. That'll be coming up in a couple of weeks," said Kulpa in a recent interview with WBEN. "The project, once it has site plan approval, we'll move on to their permitting. So it looks like if they wanted to be aggressive, they'd be able to do concrete and structural steel this fall and winter. It'll be up to them as to how they want to drive through construction season, but all indications are they've been pretty aggressive so far. So fingers crossed we'll have a Costco open soon."
While Kulpa is unsure of the exact timing of when the Costco project will be completed, he believes they would try to be open in Amherst in time for the winter retail season in 2025. Regardless, Kulpa is happy to have the project in its final site plan review stage, heading towards permitting to eventually start construction.
"Once they have site plan authorization, they've got a lot of grading work to do," Kulpa said. "It'll be earth moving, and from there, they could head towards foundations. They've got a lot of undergrounds to do utility-wise. You're not gonna see boxes coming up out of the ground yet, but you'll see some equipment on site.
"I would say this time next year, it'll really look like something, but this is all up to our Buffalo winter and construction cycle."
While the prospect of a new retail store to the likes of Costco is exciting for many Western New Yorkers, Kulpa admits the Town of Amherst does have its concerns when it comes to traffic in-and-around North Bailey Avenue during construction.
"The project itself puts off about $1.5 million in mitigation measures. The town's looking at working with the county at the corner of Bailey and Maple, and we're gonna try to figure out what that means," Kulpa said. "Then Bailey, itself, you're gonna see some changes in terms of how the plaza there currently interacts with the road, what the road conditions are."
Kulpa says if there is good news for Amherst, the relationship between the town and Benderson Development has been a positive one so far, with Benderson being very open to work with.
"I'm optimistic that as we're going through site development and construction of a Costco building, we're going to see some meaningful impacts to traffic in that area."
