OBSERVER photo by Braden Carmen. A fence has been erected around the future drive-thru at Starbucks in Tops Plaza on Vineyard Drive in the town of Dunkirk.
At the next regular Dunkirk City Council meeting, 7 Brew Drive Thru Coffee will present plans for a proposed location in the Dunkirk Multiplex Plaza.
If approved, 7 Brew would demolish the former Lightning Lube site and construct a new building.
7 Brew is a coffee shop franchise that was founded in Rogers, Arkansas in 2017. It has expanded to 256 locations across the country. According to its official website “7 Brew was born out of a desire to transform drive-thru coffee into a fun, mind-blowing experience for everyone.”
Other developments in the city are also moving forward. Construction is about to begin on the new Starbucks location in Tops Plaza on Vineyard Drive in the city of Dunkirk.
After a brief pause, preparations to build a drive-in lane and an expanded drive-in window for Starbucks are scheduled to begin next week.
Last week, a fence was erected around the building and near the entrance to the plaza on Vineyard Drive, but work was stopped after a few days because the City of Dunkirk was not notified. The location of the fence created a problem for cars entering and exiting the plaza on Vineyard Drive before the traffic lights.
“I felt there was an immediate danger to the public, so I closed it until they had made arrangements to allow the public a better exit,” said Ryan Mourer, zoning and building inspector for the City of Dunkirk.
Mourer described the issue as “Misunderstanding.” Before Benderson erected the fence and began construction, there was no pre-construction meeting to discuss the concerns. Starbucks notified the city that construction would begin in January, but the initial construction work on the drive-thru lane and the building’s exterior will be done by Benderson Development, the site’s landlord. It was Benderson who did not notify the city of his intention to fence the area and begin construction.
After a construction meeting was held on Tuesday, the project can proceed next week once a suitable exit for the plaza is established. Work on curbs, sidewalks and exterior facade will continue in the coming months.
Starbucks is targeting mid-March as an opening date for the drive-thru cafe. Benderson’s construction on the site is still on schedule, with construction set to begin on Labor Day, but Starbucks itself will not begin working on the store’s interior until January.
The Starbucks project was approved by the City Council a year ago, with the Planning Board proposing conditions following its conditional approval last June. The conditions the City Council attached to its approval of the Starbucks development plan included the installation of speed limit signs, turn signs and other appropriate signs, pavement markings to direct traffic, and a speed bump to deter drivers from traveling at high speeds in the area.
The new Starbucks’ location is at the end of a row of stores near the Vineyard Drive entrance to the Plaza that also includes Little Caesar’s and T-Mobile, which recently took over the space previously occupied by GameStop. The final Starbucks location is currently still occupied by AT&T, which plans to move to another location in the Plaza. The former GNC location is one possible site being reviewed for the move. If AT&T does indeed move into the same Plaza and T-Mobile joins, the Plaza will now house four different phone carriers: AT&T, T-Mobile, Spectrum and Verizon.
Once Starbucks begins interior renovations at its new location, another project in the city of Dunkirk should be open to the public.
Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen expects to begin operations in late 2024. Popeyes has begun underground construction and utilities are in place. The foundation has been laid, so construction is expected to be completed in 90 days.
Plans for a new Popeyes restaurant were officially approved by the Dunkirk City Council in May 2023. At a public hearing prior to the project’s approval, Brett Steenburgh, an engineer working on behalf of Liberty Restaurants, stated that the applicant aims to open the location in 2023 or the first quarter of 2024.
In the following months, however, little happened with the project, but that suddenly changed.
The Popeyes project was modeled after a similar site in Rochester, and the planning board did not have to address setback issues or overall size concerns.
The project addressed traffic congestion in the area by eliminating direct access to Bennett Road. The design included the ability to stack up to 20 vehicles to prevent pedestrians from crossing through traffic. The applicant also addressed concerns about stormwater drainage and assumed responsibility for removing contaminated soil from the site.
By the time Popeyes opens, there may be a new neighbor joining the Dunkirk Multiplex Plaza on Bennett Road.
