FW Webb plans new warehouse and showroom near Buffalo airport

FW Webb Co. wants to build a new 113,500 square foot retail facility, including a showroom, self-service retail store and drive-thru structure for customers, as well as parts storage space important indoors and in a paved outdoor warehouse. courtyard at the back. The one-story, steel-framed building would house the company's wholesale distribution business as well as the Frank Webb Home bathroom, kitchen and lighting store.

The complex would be located on 20.2 acres of grassy and wooded land at 669 S. Youngs Road, owned by a subsidiary of the Krog Group of Orchard Park. The property is shaped like a right triangle, facing Youngs to the east, with its diagonal extending along Ellicott Creek and Aero Drive to the southwest. It's just south of the New York State Thruway, near the Youngs Terminus, at a traffic circle with Aero before the airport.

According to the proposed plansby Napierala Consulting Professional Engineer PC, an engineering firm based outside of Syracusethe project would include a 90,000 square foot warehouse with separate self-service, office and showroom entrances, as well as a 20,500 square foot drive-thru pipeline shed on the north end .

The main building would include 65,430 square feet of warehouse space, plus 12,300 square feet of self-service commercial use, a 6,230 square foot showroom and 9,100 square feet of office space. There would also be a loading dock for 10 tractor-trailers on the south side. Behind the building would be a 138,500 square foot paved storage yard, while the front would have 117 surface parking spaces for employees, with an additional area reserved for 40 additional spaces.

The project would include utilities, landscaping and lighting, a new driveway from Youngs and stormwater management areas at both corners of the triangle. The property is located in a flood plain and includes a wetland, so the ground may need to be raised up to 7 feet, but construction would not disturb the wetland. Additionally, Krog has a private pump station on the property that would be redesigned as part of the project.

The land is also near a historic cemetery and other historic sites, as well as the former Westinghouse Electric Corp. property. at 4454 Genesee St. in Cheektowaga, which is undergoing a state environmental cleanup. At one time, a single-family wood-frame house stood near the center of the property, but it was demolished between 1985 and 1995.

The project will require site plan approval, a highway permit and Federal Aviation Administration authorization due to its proximity to the airport. Webb and Krog will also seek subdivision approval to divide the property into two lots. Once final approval is obtained, work by Greenleaf Construction of Massachusetts would take approximately 11 months and is expected to be completed in 2025.

Headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts, and originally founded in 1866, FW Webb is the largest distributor of plumbing, HVAC, refrigeration and industrial products in the Northeast, with more than 100 wholesale and retail locations. 48 retail showrooms in nine New England and Mid-Atlantic states. It currently has a location in Western New York on Clyde Avenue in Buffalo.

The family-owned business specializes in a large inventory of parts and equipment for plumbing, hydronic and radiant heating, indoor air quality, walk-in and hand-held refrigerators, ice makers, commercial and industrial pipes and valves, building controls and energy management. systems, propane and natural gas, water filtration softening systems and water well systems, sanitary products and process controls, sprinklers, pumps and water and sewer lines.

Also in Amherst, Frank P. Langley Co. Inc. wants to increase the size of its existing building at 219 Creekside Drive by 20% by constructing a 4,500 square foot addition. The one-story, L-shaped expansion would give the company a total of 8,625 square feet of office space and 18,230 square feet of warehouse space, for a total of 26,855 square feet.

The company also plans to expand its parking lot at the 2.18-acre site with a paved addition on the south end of the existing lot to add 10 more spaces to the current total, for a total of 47. That's still a long way off of the 58 required. for the size of the project, under the Amherst code, the company is therefore asking the city for an exemption and reserving a future parking lot which would create 11 additional spaces if necessary. New landscaping and lighting are also planned.

If Langley gets site plan approval and a building permit, construction would take about 12 months.