Gigantic New Shopping Center Coming To Western New York

The lot that has been vacant since 1994. Now, developers are hoping to take advantage of what they call a perfect location for an enormous retail center.

Thousands of people drive right by this location every day. It's the former site of what used to be the Seneca Mall. The mall was demolished in 1994, and the lot has sat vacant ever since. But there are some developers who are hoping to turn it into a 56-acre outdoor retail center with all kinds of stores.

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They want a large variety of stores

Developers from Benchmark Streamline spoke at a West Seneca board meeting about their plans. Martin Dellebovi from Benchmark Streamline said that they already have grocery stores there but they're hoping to bring in other categories of stores like sports, bookstores, soft goods, and more. They're even planning on areas for fuel and drive through fast food restaurants, but that will entail a zoning change for that property.

In December Benchmark Streamline and NS Retail Holdings LLC bought the property for $22 million.

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The location is perfect

I've always wondered why there weren't more stores jumping to build in that area. We lived in Springville when I was going up and we used to go to the Seneca Mall all the time. It seems like the perfect place for them. Dellebovi pointed out that "the southern part of our Western New York area is underserved for retail development." Ralph Lorigo is the attorney for the project. He mentioned that it's where so many of our highways all meet. The 90, the 219, and the 400 all converge right there.

The timeline for the new retail center

According to WKBW, the project would start phase 1 as early as October of this year.  Phase 3 would end in January of 2028. Phase 2 will be somewhere between those two dates.

It would be pretty cool to see some of the stores and restaurants that we don't already have here take up residence in that retail center. Can you even imagine if we could get a Raising Cane's or a Bojangles here?