A new build for Tops on East Side would have taken ‘years’

Renovating the store would allow it to reopen by the end of July, restoring an important food-shopping venue to a neighborhood that has few other options. Building a new store – an option preferred by some in the neighborhood because of the trauma associated with the site, could take years.

Complete coverage: 10 killed, 3 wounded in mass shooting at Buffalo supermarket

"For us, or anybody, to open a new store in that area would be years,” said John Persons, Tops' president, in an interview Thursday. “We really believe that the best option for us to be able to service that community again and do it successfully is by us reopening that store."

And that’s what the Williamsville-based grocer intends to do. Persons said the supermarket chain hopes to have its Jefferson Avenue location refurbished and reopened by the end of July.

Tops Markets officials say that is the best approach if the highest priority for Buffalo’s East Side is to provide the community with fresh food options as soon as possible.

The store has been closed ever since the racially motivated mass shooting on May 14 by a white supremacist that killed 10 people and injured three others.

Tops opened its Jefferson Avenue supermarket 19 years ago after residents for more than a decade had been calling for a full-service grocery store in their neighborhood, considered a food desert. The community is facing that same issue again now that the store has been closed.

"We sort of internally coalesced around that thought early on," Persons said.

Persons said he understands the concern from some community activists and civic leaders asking that the East Side Tops be built at another location so that people don’t have to go back to where the carnage of this mass shooting occurred.

“In practical terms, that’s just a very complicated endeavor if we want to service the community quickly,” he said.

Masten Council Member Ulysees O. Wingo Sr. said he is pleased with Tops’ reopening announcement. He has met with community members opposed to the reopening of the store at that location. Wingo said he told them they should neither “bulldoze the legacy” of the work put in to get this Tops built, nor allow a white supremacist’s actions to make them tear it down. He said it took nearly a decade of work by many East Side advocates to get that store built.

“We cannot negate or neglect the work that was put in to have that Tops there,” Wingo said. “People sacrificed to ensure that store was built there through their blood, sweat and tears, fighting for this community. We have to honor that as well. That would literally be tearing down the legacy and the life work of others before us.”

Ann Eason of Buffalo believes the reopening of the Jefferson Avenue Tops could be part of the healing that the community needs.

“We need it in this area," Eason said. “We’re just going to go day by day and do what we've got to do (to heal), but they definitely need to open it back up and we need more.”

However, some local residents, like Handel Taylor and his daughter Neveah, would like to see Tops move to a different location in the community or a different grocer or market come to Jefferson Avenue altogether – one that doesn’t elicit memories of what happened May 14.

“I don’t think it should open back up because of those memories. No one wants those memories," Taylor said. "Maybe if it was at a different location further down from this one."

Persons said the best Tops could have done in opening a new store is getting it completed in about two-and-a-half to three years, and that would be “doing it pretty quick.” In some places, it has taken Tops as long as seven to eight years to complete a new store project, he added.

“For us, it was an easy decision,” he said.

Before even presenting a site plan and then building a new store, Persons said Tops would need to undertake studying potential sites and evaluating them for potential customer traffic.

Then it would have to acquire the pieces of property necessary to build on – and seldom is that just one parcel with a lone owner to negotiate with. There would also be planning work, environmental reviews and other city approvals that would be required.

“All of that stuff needs to happen even before you begin contemplating building a facility,” he said. “It is a considerably long timeline.”

And then there’s the expense. Building a new store would cost more than renovating the existing one. Persons wouldn't say how much more. But building new would be “a different project, for sure,” he said.

“It is certainly a different scope of a project so there would be different costs associated with it,” Persons said.

The Jefferson Avenue store remodel has been off to a quick start thanks to Tops being able to divert materials already ordered from remodels planned for other Western New York stores. That includes flooring, new registers and updated décor and displays.

Tops is in the midst of a $120 million capital project to update many of its stores in the Buffalo market where the grocer originated 60 years ago. The several-year project includes renovating 35 of its Western New York stores. Twenty-five of them have already been completed or are being finished soon.

“That has helped us expedite the process of remodeling,” Persons said. “The store will take on a similar style reminiscent of our current remodel program and will have much of the same feel.”

Down the line, the store will also incorporate community-oriented elements at the site in collaboration with the City of Buffalo and local artist groups. That could include the work of area artists creating murals and a more sophisticated memorial than what will be there at the reopening.

“Ultimately, we want this store being representative of the community,” Persons said. “We want to try to have some sort of respectful memorial by the time we open, but given the timeframe, some of these elements will likely take considerably longer.”

Wingo believes it’s possible to both memorialize the tragic events of that day while reopening the store. He’d like to see the community offer suggestions on the best way to do so.

“Tops is going to reopen the store by the end of July and that is great, but the community can also brainstorm on what a memorial would look like for the 10 victims of this heinous crime,” he said.