Amherst, N.Y. (WBEN) - After years of sitting vacant on the corner of Niagara Falls Boulevard and Kenmore Avenue, a small plot of land that was a former gas station is undergoing a facelift that will soon see a new pocket park for pedestrians.
"This was essentially a gray field," said Amherst Town Supervisor Brian Kulpa of the site. "It had urban fill and gravel sitting on its lot for 10 years before the abandoned building came down, and 20 years if you go all the way back to when Kwik Fill last operated. So what we're doing is we're re-greening an area that was just kind of a gray field, and that's exciting"
While the small plot does not have much to offer right now, as it is now fenced off for construction, Kulpa says when the pocket park is completed, it will provide a pretty simple purpose.
"It has seating areas for the bus stops, it has a trellis through the center of it that acts as a shade structure, and it's meant to give people a break," he said. "The Niagara Falls Boulevard and Kenmore area's fairly heavily pedestrian, and a lot of transit oriented activity, meaning people getting on and off the buses. ... It's an area that combines that pedestrian activity with extremely high vehicle volume. For us, it's an important spot to interrupt sort of the rest of the commercial environment, and create an opportunity for people to get collected while they're waiting for a bus, or while they're commuting through the area."
The Town of Amherst was given control of the site at 159 Niagara Falls Boulevard after using eminent domain when the site went unattended for several years. The site had been under the ownership of billionaire John Catsimatidis, who's chairman and CEO of Red Apple Group.
According to Catsimatidis, his group fought for the right to re-open that location and operate again as a convenience store and gas station. They lost that battle to the Town of Amherst to eminent domain, which then changed their course to get paid the right price on eminent domain.
Even now, he says this particular argument was nothing about money.
"[It was] the constitutional right of a businessman to open a location versus a politician to go after them and try to shoot them down and create a park that that town didn't really need, and it was going to be very small," said Catsimatidis. "So the question is for whom do the bells toll? In my mind, it was a constitutional matter. If they can do it to me, they could do it to anybody."
While he does not agree with what is being done with the lot where his business once stood, he knows that the battle to try and control the property is over. Now, to him, it's about ensuring the constitutional rights of citizens of the city and state to continue running their business and not have any municipality take those rights for any reason.
"The town (Amherst) already has 42 parks. If there was a good reason, that's fine," Catsimatidis said. "If they're going to put a new highway in, that's fine. But for no good reason, well, that's troublesome."
While Catsimatidis was displeased with the overall process with the location at 159 Niagara Falls Boulevard, Kulpa is not worried about any potential future issues with control of the property.
"We control the property. We've taken with eminent domain. It's up to [Catsimatidis] and the court now to arrive at a value. We're sitting here waiting for him to claim his money, so that's really all there is," Kulpa said. "The funny thing is the only time it was a court issue is when they tried to challenge the eminent domain, which was a non-starter. It's the town's right to build a park there, and the property set blighted for 20 years. So it's not like it's been in use. It's pretty simple at the end of the day."
While the site does not have the space for any sort of large events, there have been some talks of doing some outdoor vending, like a small farmers market in the park. However, not much more will come of this space other than it being a place to give pedestrians some separation from the anxiety of the traffic pattern around the area.
"Right now, if you watch people transfer from the Kenmore to the Niagara Falls Boulevard bus, or vice versa, they were just kind of standing out in space, hanging out in the sun or the elements. For us, it's an opportunity to treat those people, treat the pedestrians in that area a lot better," Kulpa said.\
More of our conversation with Kulpa is available in the player below:
