GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. — The owners of the land on Grand Island once eyed for a massive Amazon distribution center are taking another shot at building something similar on the property just off the 190 on Long Road.

What You Need To Know

  • Acquest Development is proposing a 1 million square foot warehouse complex on Grand Island
  • It's same property where Amazon was planning a similar distribution center before withdrawing from the project in August
  • The new plan goes before the town's planning board on Dec. 14
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"I am a true believer in that with one lost opportunity, more often than not comes a greater opportunity," said Michael Huntress of Acquest Development.

The company is proposing a 1 million square foot warehouse — smaller overall than the Amazon building plans but a larger footprint on the ground roughly the area of 20 football fields. 

The developer says there was major interest here from other companies even as Amazon was making plans and has been able to fill a large warehouse space in Rochester. He's confident they'll find one or multiple tenants for the property they've owned for 30 years.

"The Western New York market is super tight right now on industrial space in general," he said. "The vacancy rate is less than 2.5 percent for high bay warehouse space and the demand for that type of space is significant right now."

Amazon walked away from what was known as Project Olive back in August amid concerns over costs, and pushback from the community about trucking traffic, noise, and environmental concerns.

The new plan calls for a one-story building instead of four, and the developer says it meets zoning requirements and fits into the town's master plan. There will be some additional impact on wetlands compared to the previous proposal.

"It's very similar I guess in impact to ground level,” he said. "It will probably bring some of the same traffic counts. There'll be some of the same noise concerns."

"In essence, I think it's virtually the same," said Grand Island Town Supervisor John Whitney. "There was a tremendous opposition last time and I don't expect that to change."

Whitney called for the developer to lay out the plans at informational meeting on Thursday so advisory boards and the public know what to expect. 

He says it's too soon to speculate if the project will be approved, but if it's denied it could have an effect on bringing business to the town in the future.

"That's a possibility. We don't want it to be a spot people don't want to come to build thing and do some development, provided it fits with what we want to see in our community," Whitney said.

Huntress says they won't be looking for any tax breaks to build. He hopes the project might even lure Amazon to have interest in coming back, but either way would like to start building in the spring. 

"We're going to work toward getting this thing approved and God willing some new tenants to the area and more opportunity for the community," Huntress said.

One of the next steps for the project comes when the warehouse developer brings the proposal to the town planning on board on December 14.