YOUNGSTOWN — Another Dollar General is coming to Niagara County, this one filling a big hole in Youngstown.
The discount store chain is eying the former Rite Aid at 214 Lockport St., between Griffon Brewing and the Youngstown Marketside store. The Broadway Group, the Huntsville, Alabama-based real estate company that acts on behalf of Dollar General, submitted a site plan retrofitting the building to fit its needs.
This would make it the 18th location in Niagara County.
Speaking before the Youngstown Planning Board earlier this week, Broadway Group representative Carson Styles said they originally wanted to make an addition to the building but abandoned that idea in favor of utilizing the existing structure while making minimal modifications. Normal operating hours would be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The final floor layout has not been determined yet, with the sales floor area of 5,300 square feet smaller than the typical 9,100 to 10,000 square feet found at other local Dollar Generals. The rest of the building’s 2,020 square feet of space would have two restrooms, product storage areas, an office, and a break room.
The only structural change would be adding a double door to the building’s front to accommodate deliveries, with a new Dollar General sign on the awning and on the plaza signage. The parking lot would be restriped and the privacy fence in the rear would be replaced.
The Broadway Group will close on the property in June, which includes the lease for Youngstown Marketside, which has around eight years left on it. Styles said that store would remain unchanged, with work starting in July.
Some residents asked whether fresh produce would be available, but Style did not say either way.
The planning board approved the site plan, with the village board approving it at its Thursday meeting, with the conditions that there be a sidewalk to the garbage area in the rear and any structural changes require a building permit.
Representatives from the Broadway Group declined a request for further comment.
The Rite Aid location closed in June and the village lost its only pharmacy as a result.
A Dollar General was one of the proposed uses for the former Cold Storage Building on Nancy Price Drive, where construction for new condominium units is happening.
The Broadway Group had previously told the Gazette it was involved with building 50 to 60 new Dollar Generals in New York state over the past seven years. The chain operates nearly 20,000 locations across the continental United States and Mexico.