A combination of a growing portfolio of Delta Sonic car washes and automotive detailing sites coupled with Benderson Development’s own growing real estate portfolio are the driving forces behind a proposal to increase the size and scope of the joint headquarters project set for a vacant swath of land in the Amherst Development Park just off of North Bailey Avenue.
Under revised plans submitted to the Town of Amherst - and obtained by WBFO - the new Delta Sonic/Benderson Headquarters complex, which includes both office and warehouse space, has grown by more than 8 percent - or nearly 20,000 square feet. The building complex will have 266,735 square feet up from the previously planned 246,740 square feet.
The development price tag may be north of $20 million.
Dave Mingoia, Amherst Industrial Development Agency executive director, says the new headquarters could be a real boost to the town’s economy.
“I think this is traditionally what we should be focused on. Everyone wants to talk about the next chip fab, and that's exciting and we need to do that, but 85 to 90% of your growth is going to come from working with existing companies to remain, invest, and expand here. I mean, these are people that have already invested in the community. They've already got their roots here, their families here, and you tend to have a much easier time retaining them and telling them about the positive location and message we have from a business standpoint, than people from the outside,” Mingoia said.
The new headquarters, some two years in the planning, could bring as many as 250 workers to the Amherst Development Park site. The project is under review by various Town of Amherst agencies.
It is also the latest development that has turned what was once the UB Ridge Lea Road campus into a corporate hub.
“This is exactly what we envision as kind of transforming that whole section of the town and creating new places for people to enjoy and live, and new taxable assessment and another economic vitality,” Mingoia said.
The project is one of several new developments Benderson is bringing to that section of North Bailey Avenue including a 167,000-square-foot Costco outlet and a Dicks House of Sports.
