AMHERST, N.Y. — "This is unacceptable," Town of Amherst Supervisor Brian Kulpa said about the delayed Station Twelve project in the former Northtown Plaza.
When you drive by the former plaza on Sheridan Drive, you'll see a fenced-in construction site with no activity. The parcel is planned to become a lifestyle and retail center known as Station Twelve, but work has been stalled since the COVID pandemic hit, causing frustration to grow.
"We're mid-June, we've got foundations in ground, we have partial buildings, we have no activity on the construction site, and Amherst isn't going to take that," Kulpa said. "We are not just going to accept that this is standard practice here, so we are pushing back doing everything we can in terms of code enforcement."
The project is spearheaded by Boston based developer WS Development. The group broke ground on the project in November of 2019.
Kulpa on Wednesday said WS Development has not recently been in contact with the town. "They've started to go radio silence with the town," he said.
It appears that tenants are also waiting to hear from the developer. Leaders at Albright-Knox Art Gallery, who are interested in a retail space, there say they haven't heard from WS Development either.
"While the pandemic derailed our plans,” Albright-Knox deputy director Joe Lin-Hill said. “We continue to follow the Station Twelve development with great interest and look forward to future opportunities to collaborate.”
One of the issues Kulpa mentioned is that the project is solely retail, and he said if it was a residential and mixed-use development like others in the town, he said buildings could be up already.
The building permits for the development are set to expire by the end of the year, and Kulpa said right now the town is "not interested" in renewing them.
"At the end of the day, there is going to be a push come to shove, and with all due respect to the developer, if you can't make it work with your plan, put together a different plan or think about selling the parcel to somebody who will," he said.
2 On Your Side reached out to WS Development for comment but did not immediately hear back.
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