Transit Road strip mall in line for big upgrade

As Uniland Development Co. progresses slowly with its plans to overhaul Eastern Hills Mall into a mixed-use town center, another retail plaza up the street is poised to undergo its own dramatic changes that will introduce 108 new residential units to what is now a one-story strip center.

Eleven months after buying the Eastern Transit Plaza on Transit Road in Clarence, owner Joseph J. Mancuso Jr. wants to redevelop the L-shaped multi-tenant building by adding housing on top of it and behind it, more than doubling the size of the complex.

Upon completion, it would include a new 53-unit apartment building, as well as 28 new townhomes in the back.

Located at 5445 Transit, southeast of the Roll Road intersection, the 13.7-acre property next to West Herr Hyundai and across from Kohl’s Department Store is home to 26,750 square feet of commercial and retail space. Tenants of the red brick and brown metal building include an Indian restaurant, an Indian grocery, Just Pizza & Wings, a nail salon, Fred Duncan Performance Training and a Dairy Queen.

Griff on Gastropub closed in August, saying on Facebook that its lease was not being honored.

Mancuso first plans to expand the plaza by filling part of the back side with additional commercial space, and then constructing a second fl oor on top of it with 21 apartments in 24,700 square feet. He would then construct a three-story addition in back of the short side of the “L” shape, extending the building back another 375 feet to create a “T” shape.

That back portion would contain another 5,000 square feet of first-fl oor commercial space adjacent to the existing plaza, followed by 6,315 square feet of tenant amenity space and 12 apartments, all on the ground level. The next two fl oors would feature 24 units per fl oor, for a total of 60 apartments.

Then, in the southeastern corner of the property, he would build seven twostory townhome clusters, each with four apartments and attached garages, for a total of 28 townhomes. Three buildings would be arrayed north to south along the rear, while four would be along the southern edge.

Finally, he would add a one-story, standalone, quick-service restaurant of 2,500 square feet with 25 seats, a drivethru, and 14 parking spaces in the southwestern corner of the site, facing Transit. Meanwhile, the far rear of the site, about 4.1 acres, will remain open space.

In total, the property would contain 50,750 square feet of first-fl oor building space, not including the townhomes, with 75% taken up by retail or commercial use. It would also include 294 surface parking spaces – including 102 in front along Transit and another 150 in back – plus 52 garages, including two buildings of 12 each and the townhome garages. That’s a total of 346 parking spaces, seven more than required by town code.

Mancuso, through 5445 Transit Road Holdings WNY LLC, bought the building in January for $5.5 million from Dr. Ismet Hallac. The property is zoned as both “major arterial” and “residential single-family district,” so he asked the town to rezone part of it as commercial. About 6.6 acres of the larger site would be aff ected by the construction.

He’s now seeking environmental review and conceptual site plan approval for the project, and also needs a height variance for the third fl oor of the mixed-use building, as well as a special-use permit.

Separately, Leonard and Julie Higgins still want to construct a self-storage facility to hold 56 high-end cars, with access from Goodrich and County roads. Their Clarence Motor and Sport Estates project has been pending before the Planning Board since January 2023, with an environmental review, but has been modified based on various comments.

Source: The Buffalo News