Grand Island community center plan explained

By Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

There was considerable support voiced for a Grand Island community center during an information meeting Monday night at the Golden Age Center.

But not all of the residents there were in favor of the town’s referendum for such a center to be built at 1910 Alvin Road through a 15-year, $10-million bond.

The parcel in question includes the current Niagara Hyundai office building and 75 acres. The dealership is expected to move to Niagara Falls in mid-to-late-2026.

Deputy Town Supervisor Tom Digati told the audience that, if the referendum is OK’d, the town’s phase 1 construction in retrofitting the Alvin Road building and grounds would start “in the first quarter of 2027.”

Digati said the property tax impact is estimated at 30 cents per thousand of assessed value.

Referendum overview

Michael Cocquyt, senior program manager for LaBella Associates, presented an overview of the referendum’s goals and the planning that went into it, then took questions from the audience. LaBella, an architecture and engineering firm, was hired to help produce the town’s Parks, Recreation and Senior Services Master Plan.

Cocquyt ’s job was to relay information and allay fears by providing facts on the referendum’s provisions and purpose. He said his company worked closely with town recreation and senior directors in determining the community’s needs.

He said that, until his firm’s study, the town’s last recreation and parks plan was done in 1992. LaBella received 800 responses from Islanders in its 2025 survey as to what amenities they already enjoy and what new ones they would like to see developed on the Island.

The need for more indoor recreation facilities was high in the survey responses, Cocquyt said. He added that, in the 1992 study, it was found that more outdoor recreational opportunities were needed to keep up with the growing community, “hence the development of Veterans Park.”

“In all areas outside tennis courts and a pool, the town has kept up and surpassed the norm standards across the country,” he said.

Recreation potential at Alvin Road site

Cocquyt guided the audience through the phase 1 concept plan for the Alvin Road site. His graphics showed that, in half of the paved area, you could fit a tennis court, two basketball courts, four pickleball courts, a playground and a walking path. “And still, not a single inch of soil would be touched in this plan. … We did this rendering not to show what should go there, but to showcase how big this space is. Also, you can see it is right in the middle of the Island.”

Cocquyt also pointed out how indoor space in the existing building could fit a multipurpose athletic court – for basketball, tennis, pickleball and volleyball. He said there’s also room for community space for simultaneous programming.

Costs explained

LaBella’s project cost summary:

•Property acquisition: $3.5 million

•Construction (with contingencies): $5 million

•Furniture, fixtures and equipment: $443,000

•Soft costs (consultants, design and testing): $786,000

•TOTAL project budget: $9.823 million

Cocquyt said the study is done, but the plans are not yet complete for the site’s potential need for amenities, space and infrastructure.

Michael Cocquyt of LaBella Associates explains aspects of the community center referendum to residents during a Q&A session at the Golden Age Center on Monday night. (Photo by Karen Carr Keefe)

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Questions on other site options

In response to a question as to whether this site would have been LaBella’s recommendation at the end of their study, Cocquyt said, “It would have been an indoor facility. Would we have put in a recommendation to acquire a car dealership? We never could have forecast that, right? But we would have put in a recommendation to seek property to build out a recreation center.”

Debbie Daigler asked, “Have you looked at other buildings that are vacant on the Island that we could redo and add on, instead of spending $10 million?” She suggested, as one option, the vacant Rite Aid building.

Digati answered that the Rite Aid building had significantly less square footage.

What about Rivertown?

Another attendee, developer Frank Chinnici, suggested the alternative of the Rivertown Center, which has in its site plan a recreation center and a senior center. Rivertown has been rezoned from residential to a Planned Development District (PDD). It’s a 25-acre parcel, with Grand Island Boulevard on the east, Baseline Road on the west, and it lies between Whitehaven and Webb roads.

The PDD is to include residential – with a mix of single-family homes, senior housing, townhouses and apartments – as well as commercial and recreational space.

Chinnici, whose Legacy Development is working with Trettel Properties to develop Rivertown, attended Monday’s meeting.

He later told NFP that he believes the Rivertown plan is better suited for community and senior centers than the Alvin Road site would be. He cited cost and location as the key factors.

“Rivertown is a viable, more appropriate location for these facilities, in that we have the flexibility to work with the town to ensure that it’s more cost-effective to be in Rivertown than it is to go and be a landlord to a building somewhere else that’s in a remote location,” he said.

As to the time frame, “We can start construction in the first quarter of next year,” Chinnici said of the Rivertown project.

“We’ve gone through all the preliminary stuff – the zoning, site plan approval. It’s just a matter of checking all the boxes that are necessary to get a building permit, and we’re in the process of doing that right now,” he said.

“I think, in most circumstances, we would go forward with our athletic facility, regardless of what the town does, because I think what the town’s going to do over there is just not going to be sufficient to satisfy the needs of the town.”

Cocquyt told the audience his firm was tasked with doing a parks, recreation and senior services master plan and making recommendations about the needs of the community.

“We’re not real estate professionals,” he said.

Golden Age Center plans

Digati brought the discussion back to purpose of the referendum: “We are talking about something that is town-owned, publicly accessible, not a private enterprise.”

He also said it has come to the point that it doesn’t make sense for the town or its taxpayers to continue paying for upkeep of the current Golden Age Center and its deteriorating buildings.

Former councilman Mike Madigan said, “When we considered a plan like this, we’ve always considered relocating the Golden Age Center. Cost is always a concern. So now we’re looking at this facility. It seems that Golden Age Center can’t even go there (to the Alvin Road site) because it’s on septic, not sewer.

“It seems like this location is limited or we have to change some of our long-term plans.”

Cocquyt agreed with Madigan that food service couldn’t take place at the current Alvin Road building. But Cocquyt said senior programming could. He added that plans for recreation and senior needs traditionally look 20 years to the future.

A senior citizen spoke up saying she has attended programs and has had meals at the Golden Age center for 33 years. She identified having a pool and a new Golden Age Center as the high-end features that seniors want from a new community center.

Cocquyt said that the Alvin Road site, being on a septic system, wouldn’t be ideal for a pool or for meal service at this time. But he said senior recreational sports such as bocce and tai chi could be accommodated in phase 1 of construction at 1910 Alvin Road.

Grant opportunities

Digati said that, if the referendum passes, and once the investment is made, there would be grant opportunities for a build-out of other community and senior services.

Cocquyt brought up the possibility for grants such as the BRICKS program for other recreation funding. The BRICKS acronym stands for Building Recreation and Communities for Kids and Seniors.

He said the community center project would be a perfect application for funds such as those: “It would match dollar for dollar, so that’s another $10 million to expand, but you have to have property ownership. You have to have some type of planning efforts and cost estimates in place.”

As for grants, Cocquyt said, “I don’t recommend communities count on them. They are competitive. They are never guaranteed. But this could create that opportunity.”

Digati said that, if the referendum passes, the town can explore funding for additional amenities through grants or naming rights sought by community businesses.

Site accessibility

Other audience questions centered on the availability of trails for kids to get to the Alvin Road site, and the possibility that a higher-than-expected percentage of the 75 acres in the proposed site could turn out to be protected wetlands.

Cocquyt said, “We’d have to do a wetlands delineation to know specifically, but I think it’s important to note those 5 acres of already paved surface is a great building point, and there’s a lot of frontage. With setbacks and frontage, it’s highly unlikely that that is wetlands.”

Public input and opportunity

Cocquyt said if the referendum is adopted, LaBella would recommend “a very focused, concentrated public engagement on what should go in the facility, and a more detailed analysis of the current programming and what would fit in those spaces to try to build out, maximize that space.”

Several audience members noted to NFP before and after the program that other community center plans have been rejected in the past, and that now may be the ideal opportunity to say “yes” for the sake of future generations.