In 1971 the Lexington Co-op officially opened when it put out a folding card table in the back of a bookstore, selling produce.
After a thriving operating stint in a stand alone location on Lexington Avenue, The Co-op bounced to Elmwood Avenue in 2005 – a move that led to a membership totaling 12000 people and $12 million in sales.
Now The Co-op has reached a new milestone. Over 400 members have helped to raise the $2 million needed to open its second location at 1678 Hertel Avenue. That’s right. As of this morning, Lexington Co-op has announced that it has successfully reached its capital campaign goal, which means that the Hertel location will be opening in 2016.
This is big news for the entire city. The community came together to plant The Co-op flag in North Buffalo. Not only will neighbors reap the benefit, there will be a lot of spin-off from the venture, just as there was on Elmwood Avenue back in 2005. The Co-op will help to attract additional businesses onto Hertel Avenue that will look to open close to the thriving member owned enterprise. North Buffalo could not have asked for a better business attraction.
Not only is opening of The Co-op welcome news on the street, it’s also going to be nice to see a bland, boxy looking CVS Pharmacy go the way of the dinosaurs. This section of Hertel needed a boost of this nature, and that’s what it is getting.