In 2004, Buffalo company Benderson Development relocated its corporate headquarters from Delaware Avenue to Sarasota, Florida. This year, history could have repeated itself as Benderson considered shifting its regional and Delta-Sonic Car Wash headquarters to Florida as well. Now, the company is still moving out of Buffalo, but to Amherst.
The bottom line is the nearly $26 million Benderson is investing in its dual Amherst Development Park headquarters-anchored projects could have been made in Sarasota.
But company officials say interests in the region, and combined $1.45 million in sales and property tax breaks offset the savings they would have made in Florida. Four hundred jobs and several warehouse and offices spaces were at risk of moving south
Eric Recoon, Benderson senior vice president, explains why the tax breaks from the Amherst Industrial Development Agency played a critical role in the two projects moving forward here.
“There certainly are challenges and costs. A project with this kind of cost is very unique. So, you have to look at all the options out there, and certainly the Sarasota option was a consideration,” Recoon said.
Instead, Benderson is developing a regional hub, or campus, all centered North Bailey Avenue, with the Amherst Development Park to the east and the Boulevard shopping complex to the west.
The two headquarters projects are being developed in tandem with a Dick’s World of Sports complex already under construction and the region’s first Costco outlet, that will begin construction by early summer.
“Some of those amenities that we talk about for employees have become more and more important over the over the last several years, and we've done internal polling about things that people want to see and what people want in their vicinity, and all of those were taken into consideration as a part of this planned move,” Recoon said.
The Amherst IDA directors are expected to officially sign off on the respective tax break packages by early June and construction on both projects will start this summer.
