Buffalo Rising Online

Another unique piece of Buffalo gone. Well at least we will have more parking

ugh, this is always a constant battle but honestly their current 12 space parking lot is NEVER full. I grew up in this neighborhood and walking there is what people do. They don't drive to Rite Aid, if they are getting in their cars they are heading out of the neighborhood to shop and probably will stop at another rite aid, this business caters to the convenience needs of the neighborhood. Where to go and grab a card the day before your fathers birthday etc..

I am glad to see them expand and it is really need but it is a shame to break down one of the last intact four corners in the neighborhood if not the whole city. This is about as urban as you get in Riverside Black Rock, all three other corners have businesses in them. If they need to expand it is a shame they just see this building as in the way. In other cities rite aids and Walgreen's actually DO USE older buildings. I am sure they kick up a fit but the difference in politicians don't cave in. This is a profitable location for them, it always has been and spending an extra 10% (guess) to reuse at least the one corner building and rebuild on the rest of the block seems a fair deal.

58 parking spots?!?! Fingers crossed on being able to save the corner building.

Novel thought- put the Rite Aid IN the corner building and blow back into the other building! I was recently in Seattle and walked past a drug store that had done almost the exact same thing. guess what? It looked great and unique!

does Rite Aid want it? Or does zoning require it? I can't imagine 60 cars at Rite Aid.

If they are intent on redoing this block, create new builds long the street and create a city owneed lot across the rear to be shared by all buisnesses facing the Street with lot access to the two side streets. Lease the use of it.

Has anyone seen the Wherle/Harlem intersection lately. What was once a semi-walkable street has turned into an asphalt bordered cirlce to be? with pushed back drug stores.

Lets demand some unique urban development/solutions.

These drug stores live off the drive thru pharmacies. 58 spots is exessive for any location, i've been to a million pharmacies and i've never seen 58 people in the store at once.

East Aurora and the village of Orcahrd Park have the right idea. They are both experiencing a small boom in retail growth and they have severally limited the parking for each new development and all of the projects have been highly successful.

Limite Rite Aid to 30 car parks and they will still locate in this neighborhood. The city has to refine the zoning and building codes. Retailers and developers will find ways to live with it and continue to build.

Carl Paladino is the developer of 99% of the Rite Aids in WNY. Just FYI.

Big Parking Lot - more trash to pick up.

my two cents is that the RMS would make a great Starbucks, Spot or coffee shop.....as well as a small restaurant like a subshop...

Isnt their someplace else that has enough land for this Rite Aid....your tearing down 3 and 4 story buildings for a parking lot and a rite aid....then expecting that to improve what for many is the center of town for this area (just how far up their arse to some people in this neighborhood have their heads anyway)

Buffalo doesnt have town centers for its major inner city neighborhoods but the RMS is very close to being the town center for this community and to care so little and have such disregard for their town center is frightening. They should be looking to use it as an anchor to revitalize instead of RiteAid. As with much of Buffalo...its to poor to see the forest for the trees.

PS I dont care about the RMS persay but I think everyone should care about the seemless wall of buildings in a very walkable community

There is almost an entire block of vacant land just up the street a couple blocks, The truth is the area where Rite AId is and wants to be is very dense and not very vacant. The Riverside Mens Shop is really the only major empty storefront for a couple blocks up and down T street. It is a very heavily used transit connection between the 5 and the 30. It is dense, nice and a shame that a company like Rite Aid has the power to take that away from the city. A parking lot on this corner, like the one they did at the corner of Fillmore & Main is what I assume they are going to try to build.

If that happens the wind starts to block, trash starts to build up and people fly in and out of the parking lot trying to catch the light. Horrible idea to take this building down. Put rite aid around it, facing either or both Ontario streets and and Tonawanda Street but either incorporate or leave this building alone...

I like the idea of the city taking over the lot to create a public use lot for all the businesses, that sounds like an option that could be a win win for everyone involved.

Also a drive through doesn't need to mean the demise of the corner building, you can design it easily into most configurations the problem if they developer / rite aid doesn't want to actually be site specific. They just want to plop down their pre-designed - pre-stamped pieces of crap for as cheap as possible whether it is the east side or williamsville.

Zoning calls for this amount of parking. I couldnt agree with JohnMartin more on this issue. While it would be ideal to see these existing buildings put to reuse, the reality of the situation is that this is a declining neighborhood that is going to see a huge aesthetic improvement to the gateway of their community. The new Rite Aids look quite different than older ones, especially the prior Eckerd on Main & Fillmore, and even the older ones that have been turned into Family Dollar stores. There is also a vacant elementary school sitting behind the site that adds to the vacancy that apparently does not exist at this intersection? Last time I checked I did not see anything booming.

You can't blame Rite Aid, the developer or the site designers. It is the city who makes the codes and enforces them. They require 1 parking stall per 300SF of gross floor area that would equal about 50 stalls. Also, I highly doubt it will be fenced in like the previous Eckerd mentioned on Main & Fillmore - now that is awful, and there is excess trash that collects. That however was not Rite Aid site design. Living in corporate America, corporations do usually have a typical store design that they follow..is this any different than a Kohl's that you see at a number of different sites? Also, if they owner did not want to sell, then they do not have to. Its not like eminent domain can be used to seize the property. Also, was this an independent private owner of RMS, or was it just another developer who got a hold of it years ago? People are quick to throw everything down, damn trolls!

Good points urbanboarder. If you don't like the design or the parking of this Rite Aid, blame the city. Same thing holds true in the suburbs. Zoning regs and codes allow buildings like this.

I believe RMS was picked up at auction by Plaza Group (local developer).

RMS was bought by Plaza. Inside, its a great old building. Lots of almost secret passages. Very deco like Standing inside those windows is rather cool too. Bloody shame if it has to go.

I drive past this corner almost every day and live 20 meters down the road in the summer. Im just hopeing that they build it to the corner and make it look a little urban.

LOL...a parking lot for 58 cars in a city neighboorhod. Typical for the city's mind set. How pathetic if they get away with. Not to mention that corner building is so cool.

i think its a very bad thing too the neighbood, this is a very old neighbood, and there messing it up with all this shit they should keep things how is, and just put store's in the obanded store front's