via Buffalo Business First
By Jim Fink
Ellicott Development Co. has plans to move forward on a pair of restaurant-anchored projects in Buffalo, including one to bring a Tim Hortons Cafe & Bake Shop to the lower West Side.
Both proposals will be vetted on Nov. 5 by the Buffalo Planning Board and, pending various city approvals, could be under construction by later this winter.
Planning board members will consider a proposal from Ellicott Development to construct a restaurant/retail combination on a nearly three-acre parcel along Niagara Street between Albany Street and Fargo Avenue. Ellicott Development has controlled the site for a number of years.
The property was home to the International Brewing Co. and American Gelatine Corp. in the early 1900s and was also home to a Gulf gas station on its northern end for four decades, ending in the late 1960s. The southern end of the parcel was home to Niagara Lithograph Co. and later Miken Cos. until 2000.
Tentative plans call for the development of a Tim Hortons outlet and an adjoining retail or restaurant.
Tim Hortons has more than 220 area locations, ranging from full-service restaurants to limited service kiosks. It is opening a two-level restaurant on Oct. 30 inside the HarborCenter.
Meanwhile, the planning board will also get a deeper, more detailed development game plan for a former gas station site at the corner of Elmwood and W. Delavan avenues that Ellicott wants to turn into a mixed-use project.
Proposed is an L-shaped, four-story building that will house an upscale restaurant featuring wood-oven created specialty pizzas and other items on the first floor and 21 upper, market-rate apartments. The restaurant will be run by Henry Gorino, former owner of Oliver’s, and modeled after his popular Rocco’s restaurant on Transit Road in Clarence.
The Buffalo Zoning Board of Appeals reviewed the project on Oct. 22 and deferred a final vote until Nov. 19 while a few issues are clarified.
A final development price tag for the two projects is still being tabulated. Both will be privately financed.
