Aldi is proposing to demolish the vacant Kmart store at 998 Broadway across from the Broadway Market to construct a new store. The new construction at what may be Buffalo's most famous retail address is raising questions on the impact on the Market where Save-A-Lot, an Aldi-like discount grocer, is the anchor tenant.
The vacant 90,000 sq.ft. Kmart building has been vacant since 2002. A Sattler's store on the site was torn down in the late-1980s. A proposal to use the vacant structure as an alternative school and later a church went nowhere.
Buffalo Business First's James Fink has the Aldi details:
"I am concerned about whether it will help or hurt the Broadway Market," said Fillmore District Councilman David Franczyk, who is also Buffalo Common Council president. "My first impression is that it could hurt the market."
Franczyk has met with Aldi officials about the project in recent weeks.
Save-A-Lot is the largest rent-payer in the Broadway Market, which itself operates on a razor-thin budget. Besides its historic status, the Broadway Market is the community hub for the economically-challenged Broadway-Fillmore district.
"This is not a suburban strip mall situation where there is enough customer traffic for everyone," Franczyk said. "I don't know if there is enough business to sustain both and if Save-A-Lot closes because of the Aldi store and the (Broadway) market closes because of that, what have we gained? Nothing."
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Any hopes for MIX use building built closer to the street while still having an Alidi's on the first floor and parking in the REAR????? Statlers (the former tenent on this site) was designed like that.
Think about it. This is a 'POOR' section of town where most people don't own a car. Why have it surrounded by a parking lot????? Build it SMART. Mix-use with living and/or office space above and create a MASS that is needed here. So tired of these suburban style projects getting built in this city. We are in a city NOT a suburb.
Realistically, no. Not until the Buffalo Green Code zoning code update is passed into law next year. Then we will see developers come forward with more urban designs.
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Yeah this is also a section of town that doesn't have nearly the sufficient residential density within a walking distance radius to make the store able to sustain itself without a sizable parking element. Without enough parking, the store won't be built.
What would you consider sufficient residential density?
According to the 2010 census the population density of the tract to the south of this site is 3011.2 people per square mile, and that of the tracts to the northwest and northeast is 5434.3 and 6937.0 people per square mile, respectively. That's quite low compared to places like Hertel, Elmwood, or Allentown (approximately 15,000 people per square mile), but still denser than the tracts surrounding a pedestrian-oriented business district in the suburbs like Williamsville or North Tonawanda.
You generally need about 10,000 people per sq. mile minimum to support a neighborhood business district. With a population density nearly half that at best, you have to rely on vehicular traffic to make up the difference and that by and large isn't happening. Even Hertel has quite a few empty storefronts, and it has one of the largest concentrations of a stable and relatively wealthy population in the city. Comparing suburban areas (even "pedestrian friendly" ones) to the East Side is not apples to apples, the demographics are much different and I bet those businesses get quite a bump from vehicular customers.
"You generally need about 10,000 people per sq. mile minimum"
According to Wiki: NYC has 27k/ sqm; Chicago 11k/sqm; and LA 7k/sqm
Those are the three largest cities and one of them misses your criteria. Are you sure about your 10k figure?
If you want them to mostly walk, yes, and the neighborhood density is more important than total density. The most economically vibrant sections of Buffalo are also some of the densest, which are about twice the density of the city in general. The discussion on density is throughout Steve Belmont's "Cities in Full" with the first instance of using the 10,000 pop figure on page 9. If you have less than roughly that number, you have to rely more on car traffic from outside the immediate neighborhood to sustain a business district. Far higher and you can support a bewildering amount of shops in a very compact area (parts of NYC). For the Broadway area, you have a multiple whammy of disinvestment, a low and falling population, and no draw outside of the Broadway Market. No-one is going to go to Broadway to do shopping outside of the folks who live there, they can get most anything either closer to home or in a safer location.