WHEATFIELD — Pellicano’s Marketplace relocated to its current Niagara Falls Boulevard location in 2020. Now it wants to build upon its footprint.
The 7,000-square-foot market known for its Italian food offerings is looking to expand to around 20,000 square feet of space.
“We’re looking to hopefully double or triple the size of our current location,” said General Manager Matt Gatti. He added they want to grow every department including produce, deli and prepared foods while adding a small coffee shop, a kitchen, coolers and storage.
In business since 1986, Pellicano’s opened its first Niagara County location in 2009, down the road from where they are now. The location was originally supposed to be bigger but ran into wetlands issues that have since been rectified.
Wheatfield Building Inspector Mike Klock said that because of the nature of the expansion, Pellicano’s needs approval from the town planning board, not the town board, rather than just a building permit. A site plan has yet to be completed, Gatti said they are still in the planning stages.
“Our code allows that if you’re doing less than 50% of an addition, you just need a building permit,” Klock said. “We’re doubling the size of these existing structures.”
A public hearing took place on Jan. 15 with some residents asking if there was going to be another road through to Evergreen Drive behind Pellicano’s, where there is a town-owned access point. That would not be the case, with a gate connecting to a dead-end road used for emergency vehicles only.
Klock said it would require more than one planning board meeting to approve the request, with expansion broken down into phases. The first two entail accessory structures and storage and the second adds a plaza.
A site plan has yet to be completed, Gatti said they are still in the planning stages but they want to have the expansions done within the next year and a half.