New plans for former Summit Mall

By Benjamin Joe

The former Summit Mall may host a data center, if plans move forward. Currently, a sports complex is housed in part of the structure.

Damian Parker, of Premier Streets, approached the Town of Wheatfield Planning Board on Wednesday, May 21, to see if the code would allow for the storage of data.

“Right now, we’re trying to find out the feasibility and understand the town’s zoning,” Parker said.

The board members had some questions, including if there will be upgrades to the parking spaces for employees of the data center, as well as whether generators would be installed.

Parker said the “footprint” of the proposed facility would be “far less than traditional retail,” and the data center would run on batteries in case of an outage.

He estimated 75 to 100 employees would work at the facility, which could be operational in three to five months.

“Wonderful; that’s a nice amount of employees to bring to Wheatfield,” said Susan Angello-Eberwein, chair of the Planning Board. She noted the jobs are “upper-wage.”

Parker also said his company would convert the former mall for data storage and take on any clients that decide to rent space.

The sporting center, called the Niagara International Sports & Entertainment, or NISE, will remain on site as well, in the area once occupied by Sears.

Niagara International Sports & Entertainment (NISE) Director of Athletics and Events Neal Turvey said many developers and interested parties have contacted him and Summit Mall owner Zoran Cocov about the possibility of remaking parts of the mall, but most are small retailers. He said it would take a big project to be worth developing. He noted the data center is proposing a 60,000- to 80,000-square-foot project.

“We get approached by a ton of a different people about a ton of different things,” Turvey said in a phone call after the meeting. “So, it’s not unusual. This is just one where he wanted to go to the meeting to find out if they would allow something like that.”

Currently, the mall has been redeveloped to house 90,000 square-feet of the NISE sports complex and 20,000 square-feet for Play University, which Turvey likened to Rochester’s Museum of Play (It, too will remain).

As for the data center, Turvey said he will be meeting with Parker in a week.

Ultimately, the Planning Board agreed that data storage was a use for the property, though the way forward was not entirely clear.

“I don’t know what direction we’ll have to take, but we will find out. We’ve been waiting for something big to happen there for a long time,” Agnello-Eberwein said.