TOWN OF NIAGARA — It’s been a decade in the making but the Town of Niagara will soon be home to Niagara County’s first Sonic Drive-In.
The Niagara Town Board gave its unanimous approval Tuesday night to a site plan that calls for the high-profile and popular national fast food restaurant chain to set up shop at 1900 Military Road, on a front-facing out-parcel at the Fashion Outlets of Niagara USA mall. The plans call for the demolition of a vacant former restaurant building — the former Red Lobster — on the site, replaced by a gleaming new 2,500-square-foot structure that will feature indoor and outdoor dining spaces and 11 of the company’s iconic car-hop stations.
The developer, Kevin DiPirro, said the new restaurant will feature green space that includes 29 new trees along with “lots of shrubbery, LED lighting and some custom touches just for Niagara Falls.” He said the restaurant will also have a larger indoor dining area than some older Sonic Drive-Ins.
“I was really happy when I first learned of this (project and I’m even happier now,” town Supervisor Sylvia Virtuoso said. “I think all of this color and lighting is going to bring some excitement to Military Road.”
The project has been on the drawing board since 2014 when Sonic first announced that it had inked a pact with DiPirro to expand into Niagara and Erie counties. The franchise agreement called for bringing eight new restaurants into the region over six years. The first of those restaurants opened in 2015 in Cheektowaga.
“We had a couple of sites we were looking at (in Niagara County), but then Covid hit and we kind of hit pause,” DiPirro said. “So now we’re gearing back up.”
DiPirro has opened a Sonic site in Buffalo and one in Erie, Pennsylvania in the aftermath of the pandemic, but says this latest project is his most exciting to date.
“I’m super excited about (this restaurant),” he said. “It’s been a focus of ours and we’re ready.”
Oklahoma City-based Sonic operates or franchises 3,545 drive-ins across the United States,
“We’ve been in the restaurant business in upstate New York for years and know Sonic would be a welcome and one-of-a-kind offering within this market,” DiPirro said in January 2014 when the expansion plans were first announced. “The unique drive-in experience with skating carhops and the distinctive menu items … will see success in Buffalo and beyond.”