Buffalo is about to get its first Sonic drive-in restaurant.
Uniland Development Co., which owns a significant amount of land around the Elmwood-Hertel intersection, has landed Sonic Drive-In as its newest tenant, bringing its roller-skating carhops to North Buffalo.
That will mark only the second Western New York location for the fast-growing and popular restaurant, which first arrived in Western New York five years ago but has failed to grow as planned.
According to plans by Silvestri Architects and filed with the city, the Amherst-based developer wants to erect a 3,749-square-foot fast-food restaurant and drive-thru on 1.2 acres of land at 1880 Elmwood, also known as 800 Hertel.
The project will feature a drive-thru lane encircling the $1 million building as well as 27 diagonal parking spaces in several rows. Sonic is seeking a special-use permit from the city to allow the drive-thru, which will be reviewed by the Buffalo Planning Board on Sept. 8.
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Franchise operator Kevin DiPirro opened the first Sonic in the region on Union Road in Cheektowaga in 2015 through his Elmhrt Enterprises, but has struggled to get a second one open since then, despite a 7-year-old agreement with Sonic to open eight locations in Western New York within six years. A previous effort to open on Transit Road fell through.
It's also a coup for Uniland, which has been working to transform the heavily trafficked intersection into a mixed-use project since it acquired 20 acres of land from the Deni family in early 2018.
The developer then announced overall plans to convert the properties into a blend of residential, commercial and retail space, and began seeking an anchor tenant to get the effort rolling.
It demolished and cleared the deteriorating former Dow and Denny Machine buildings at 1820 Elmwood and 766-800 Hertel, and then announced plans to convert a warehouse into a 33,000-square-foot medical office building, which was then acquired by People Inc. a year ago. That's adjacent to the Sonic site.
Plans for the rest of the land are still in progress.
“We’re putting into place services for the community and we have more to go on those parcels," said Uniland spokeswoman Jill Pawlik. "We are eager to fill the corner lots with other services that can be useful to the neighborhood such as retail, offices, medical and entertainment.”
Sonic has 3,608 restaurants in 46 states, and is the largest drive-in chain in the country. The Oklahoma City-based company was acquired in 2018 by Inspire Brands, the parent of Arby's and Buffalo Wild Wings.
