Batavia City Centre

As predicted later last year by city officials and a property realtor, the former JC Penney’s site will be put on the auction block later this month for default of money owed by California owner Yong Guang Ye.

The site that served as anchor to Genesee Country Mall-turned Batavia City Centre for decades closed its doors in fall of 2020, and was purchased for $500,000 by Ye in February 2021. It will go up for sale — via public auction — at 10 a.m. Jan. 16  in the second floor waiting area of the Genesee County Courts Facility, 1 W. Main St., Batavia.

Batavia Development Corporation Executive Director Tammy Hathaway has fingers crossed that this time an owner will take hold of the possibilities and future for the building.

“I’m hopeful that someone viable will bid on it, but my optimism is slightly plagued, as I don’t know how well broadcasted the auction public notice was,” Hathaway said Thursday. “So I’ve been sharing it personally with business owners and developers that I’ve had conversations with about the building.”

During a tour of updates at City Centre with The Batavian in early December, City Manager Rachael Tabelski said she thought the property owner was about one year behind in paying his taxes, and the lender was planning to put the 38,524-square-foot site up for mortgage foreclosure auction. A judgment of foreclosure was filed on property owner Yong Guang Ye on Nov. 8 for the amount of $179,141.46 plus interest and costs. 

City officials, including Tabelski and Hathaway, also had an open house with renderings of ideas for the Penney’s site and adjacent parking lot, and the south Creek Side Park area along the Tonawanda.Both sides of the city focused largely on housing concepts. 

According to online records, the Penney’s property is assessed at $400,000. The property is sold subject to the terms and conditions of filed judgment and terms of sale. Premises are identified as Tax Account No. 84.049-1-9.

Health and wellness have always been important to family nurse practitioner Renee Marie Robbins. However, it wasn’t until a close family member became critically ill that it took on a deeper meaning.

“I was interested in it and went and did some training and really loved what I did. And then, the whole weight loss thing kind of blew up around here, and I have a personal love for it because, seeing my brother at 45 have a heart attack and almost not be with us, I've really delved into nutrition and health,” Robbins said Friday while doing last minute set-up of her new place at Batavia City Centre. “Also, just being in family practice, helping others, and then having issues with them being denied from their insurance when they really could use the help. A lot of people have been where they just need that little extra push and motivation, and to be held accountable and have someone really care about their health and their journey.” 

A Batavia native and 1997 Notre Dame High School graduate, Robbins has more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry. She most recently worked at Oak Orchard Health, which she left one and a half years ago. She continues to work at Guler Cardiology in Batavia while debuting her Renee Marie Aesthetics and Wellness next door at 47b in the City Centre. 

Robbins is having a grand opening to introduce herself and her offerings, including a Dyson supersonic raffle prize, beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday.

She first rented space at a salon in Elma and ran it for two and a half years, drawing clients from the area and her hometown. However, she said, few practitioners offered the weight loss or aesthetic services she is now bringing to Genesee County. 

Those include individualized counseling, use of supplements, an FDA-certified compounding pharmacy to mix two medications together when needed, and finding alternatives when one’s insurance won’t cover a service or someone doesn’t want to go the drastic route of a gastric bypass or end up with diabetes before the insurance company might provide more coverage.

“Bottom line is, I'm willing to try to help someone with their weight loss or their health needs, we'll say, in any way that I can, whether it's through insurance, and if insurance doesn't cover weight loss, then I have alternative means,” she said. “There’s a lot that goes into it; it’s not just what you eat, it’s not just exercise, but it’s also habits. More mindful eating is what I try to teach, we need to always be conscious about what we’re putting into our bodies, about portions. And that’s, I think, where people struggle a lot.”

On the aesthetics side, Robbins has trained with the American Academy of Facial Aesthetics and keeps up on techniques with continued trainings, she said. Services include lip and facial fillers, wrinkle relaxers including Daxxify and Dysport, microneedling, glow facials, EMS body sculpting of various body parts (the abs are especially popular, she said, with electrical stimulation of the muscles to simulate doing 30,000 sit-ups in 30 minutes to strengthen the core).

Some of those body sculpting procedures can be part of a weight loss package. She offers single-session and package prices for services and is available for free Telehealth consultations. 

“I hope to help others achieve their health goals. I am proud to own and operate my own aesthetics and wellness clinic, taking pride in providing exceptional service and delivering results to my clients … and how much I care to help others be more healthy, happy, have confidence and be more successful in their goals,” she said. “It’s about helping others. People were coming out to me in Elma, and I live out here and they live out here, and it was like, all right, through a lot of encouragement, I decided just to go ahead and do it, because it’s just the best feeling, it really is.

“My vision is to empower other practitioners … like massage therapists. I really would like to make it a wellness center,” she said. “There’s no better feeling than to hear ‘you’ve really changed my life.’”

Robbins works with individuals, couples, groups, people of all ages, and people with various medical conditions and provides “complete confidentiality,” she said. Hours are by appointment, Monday through Friday. 

For more information, call 585-483-0038, email reneemarieaesthetics@gmail.com or go HERE.

More than a dozen people showed up to the city’s brownfield opportunity area open house Monday, offering an overall thumbs-up for increasing the housing stock while also differing on items of concern, such as devouring too many parking spots, not considering community needs, and lack of privacy from looming apartment complexes.

After perusing the renderings for the Batavia City Centre parking lot adjacent to the Bank of America drive-through along Bank Street, Richard Beatty noted what was missing.

“Looking at the existing parking lot, I'm concerned about the public market; its location right now in the O’Lacy’s parking lot is not good. I think there's a battle between O’Lacy’s and Angotti’s and the other places for parking. And it's just really not a pleasant experience,” Beatty said during the event at City Hall. “Whereas at the market, its last year's location was all right, it was much better where the police station is now. But that's gone; that issue has flown away. So, yeah, I would like to see more focus on the public market space. I think that's a good draw to the city, good draw for vendors. So I don't see anywhere in this that takes a look at that.

“It should be downtown, somewhere, somehow. And I think that's where it draws people into the city, and they're going to go to other places when they're in downtown,” he said. “I like public markets. I think, you go anywhere around Western New York, you go to public market sites, they're popular.”

The plan is to build an apartment complex along Bank Street from the corner of Alva Place south, across from the police station. That would bring more of the urban back into the city and bring it closer to the street that urban renewal removed, said Ed Flynn, vice president of LaBella Associates and project consultant. 

Flynn walked through all of the plans, beginning with Batavia Creek Side right behind the ice rink on Evans Street. There’s Concept A, with buildings closer to the water and to Ellicott Trail.

“This has the images of the concepts right here the trail is right next to where the market rate apartment would be. And then over here, this is kind of the view looking where the current gazebo is, and then there’s a space for a potential cafe as well,” he said. “Another concept (B) which has all the buildings kind of right next to them, not along the trail, and a little bit more green space. And the ice rink is a little bit to the south of the current ice rink right now, still the gazebo there, still a lot of green space.”

City resident Janice McFollins liked the first concept because the buildings were more separated and didn’t seem as crowded together. She and City Councilwoman Tammy Schmidt agreed that the rendering was more appealing, and Schmidt suggested that perhaps one row of buildings could be for tenants age 55-plus and the other set for families with children.

“I just think it is very nice looking,” McFollins said. “Very neat.”

They also liked the idea of a first-floor parking garage that would be part of the development, since nothing could be built on the first floor due to the flood zone, Flynn said.

He continued on with the tour of conceptual plans.  

“And then over here we have some reorganization of the City Centre parking lot, a little bit more pedestrian friendly, a bit more efficient in terms of the traffic flow. And then potential liner buildings along Bank Street for potential apartments or more innovative retail on the first floor,” he said. “And then this is an idea for the former JC Penney site, which would also do some more housing as well, or hotel.”

The city doesn’t own the Penney’s building, and that is to go up for auction by the lender, but city officials are hoping that these concepts will help provide prospective developers with ideas and some plans to pursue, he and Batavia Development Corporation Director Tammy Hathaway said. 

The parking lot is owned by the city, and there will be future discussion about the bank drive-through, Flynn said.

“So I still need to talk to the bank, have some conversations with them. The idea is they have kind of liner buildings like that between (Bank of America and the police station),” he said. “So more urban, more back to rebuilding the urban grid that used to be here.”

Taking up more parking spaces concerns RaeAnn Engler, treasurer for the GO ART! Board of Directors. She has seen how busy the parking lot can get and wonders how it would handle an apartment filled with tenants in need of parking spots. 

“I’m a little concerned about that, and I'm not sure exactly what it's doing to parking space for people. I don't know if there's underground parking in these buildings the way they are over by the creek, so those people are going to need to park in that parking lot,” Engler said. “And what's it going to do to draw people downtown? A concern.”

Other aspects that people liked included:

• Creek Park Development (Concept A) looks great
• Underbuilding parking
• JC Penney/parking lot concepts
• Love apartments

Concerns included:

• Kayak/boat launch for Creek Park
• Perhaps some sort of incentive to property owners on the west of the creek to maintain their backyards
• Maybe condos
• No privacy for homes across the creek, junk in the creek
• What happened to the park that was going to be there?
• Where is the city snow going?
• How does this impact properties on the other side of the Tonawanda? 
• Upkeep?
• Parking plan for Alva and Jefferson — don’t cut off access
• Is City Centre east parking shared between residents and visitors? 

All public comments will be taken back to a committee to work out the “best use of this area, reinventing the area for revitalizing it,” Hathaway said. 

“If we can incorporate them into changing any of the renderings, that's what we'll do. Then we'll change them. I would say it's going to happen in January … and then we'll probably do some sort of a press release after the public comments (to say) this is what we came up with,” she said. “It's really up to a developer, but this gives us guidance for a developer as to what the committee is determined is best use for an area.”

These latest comments will be combined with input from the county’s housing study this fall, and “we will put that all together,” she said. " All of our conversations going forward with developers will incorporate those thoughts.”

Have developers expressed interest in these projects? Hathaway takes a phone call from one at least once every other week, she said. Creek Park Batavia LLC cannot be sold just yet until the flood map and newly zoned floodway are settled and city officials have more answers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, she said. 

“So the city is waiting for answers to come back on the questions that they asked regarding the change in the floodway, how that impacts the area, if it was already in a flood zone, so developers know they've had to build a flood compliance,” she said. “But now you add on the extra engineering fees and everything because of the floodway. So we want to make sure that if there's any way that we can have something changed ahead of time, we want to do that.”

After all of the hopeful visions and dreams for developer Yong Guang Ye’s possible plans for the former JC Penney building, the site is now likely to go up for auction after going to foreclosure.

Ye’s former realtor, Jonathan Mauer of Pyramid Brokerage Co. in Fairport, no longer represents the California developer, who “didn’t really have a business plan” when he bought the department store property for $500,000, Maurer said. It was then put up for sale at a selling price of $750,000.

After the purchase became public, others chimed in with hopeful wishes that it could be turned into a boutique or micro hotel or a concert venue, citing its downtown location and midway point of Buffalo and Rochester as being a perfect setup for travelers. There were no takers for the property, apparently, and Ye let property taxes lapse into what may be eventual foreclosure, Maurer said. He wasn’t certain which out-of-state bank was the lender.

City Manager Rachael Tabelski briefly mentioned that it looked like the property was going up for auction during a recent City Council meeting. The Batavian requested further confirmation about the site's status at 40 Batavia City Centre on Friday afternoon. 

"I believe they are one year out of back taxes, so foreclosure requires two years delinquent. I’ll need to check records to confirm," Tabelski said Friday. "I have heard that the lending company may be auctioning the property off. But I also have not found any details of this yet."

JC Penney closed its doors at City Centre in the fall of 2020 in an onslaught of closings due to corporate bankruptcy proceedings. Batavia’s site then sat quietly as local shoppers mourned the loss of another department store. 

According to Genesee County assessment records, Yong Guang Ye of San Jose, Calif., purchased the 38,524-square-foot site on Feb. 2, 2021. The property has been assessed at $400,000. 

JC Penney was built in 1978 along Alva Place and remained a strong anchor for the former Genesee Country Mall-turned-Batavia City Centre until its doors were permanently closed in late 2020.

Press Release:

The Genesee County Youth Bureau will be hosting its 21st annual Family Game Night! The event will take place on Friday, October 4 from 6 - 8 p.m. at Batavia City Centre, Batavia (Please use the entrance of City Hall). 

The night will consist of interactive booths with activities, games and prizes for families and youth serving organizations. This event is free and includes pizza and a beverage. Each family will take home one brand new board game after they visit the booths so they can start their own family game night!  

Just for attending you will be entered into a raffle to win one of several prizes from businesses all around Genesee County. Adults must be accompanied by a child to receive the board game. 

Please call the Youth Bureau for more information at 344-3960. The Genesee County Youth Bureau would also like to thank Alabama Hotel, Batavia Kiwanis, and Batavia’s Original Pizzeria for sponsoring the event & the Batavia City Centre for hosting the event.

After two months of presentations to local companies and organizations about the changes being made to RTS Genesee’s bus route, those changes took effect this week based out of Batavia City Centre, Regional Manager Ricardo Santiago says.

The company expanded two former bus routes that were from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and lengthened them for a full day of 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, with more frequent stops, Santiago said. 

“Routes start at 6:30 a.m. and they go all the way to the last set of buses leave out of City Centre at 5:30 p.m. servicing one last hour of bus rides throughout the county, between Batavia and Le Roy. We have four new routes that provide more service, more frequent stops, and for longer times during the day,” Santiago said to The Batavian. “Not only did we expand the hours of service we are now, we basically have a help center at City Centre where we all buses meet at the bottom of the hour, and they all leave at the same time. 

"They go out and they do their run, and all buses come back within the hour," he said. "They're back at City Centre so people can transfer from one location to another and proceed to the next location.”

The bus stop is to the left of the former J.C. Penney building, though that will move after the new police facility is completed, he said. A more permanent bus stop with shelter for patrons will be set up on Alva Place next April, he said.

A misnomer is that the dial-a-ride has been eliminated, which isn’t true, he said. That service is on a first come, first served basis, and is urged for riders going to areas not serviced by the regular bus routes. 

The company has attempted to educate the public via a public hearing and information sessions to get the word out about the change. 

“One of the things we’ve done is we’ve been going out for the last eight weeks and making presentations to Office for the Aging, ACE Employment, DSS (and others)," he said.

A few readers have contacted The Batavian with questions about this change, so here's a reminder about the routes and where to get more information.

The expanded courses are to improve the frequency of routes in Batavia and Le Roy, simplify the route structure and provide RTS enhanced ability to improve service through reliability and new destinations,  a company press release states.

New RTS Genesee Service includes four routes:

• Route 210, Batavia West, which serves Big Tree Glen, the VA, Tops, Walmart and Target.
• Route 211, Batavia South, serving Birchwood Place, the VA, Tops, Walmart and Target.
• Route 212, Batavia East, which goes to 400 Towers, Washington Towers, United Memorial Medical Center and the Department of Social Services.
• Route 214, Le Roy/Stafford, which serves Royal Apartments, Tops, Save-a-Lot, Le Roy Meadows and DSS. The bus also provides service within Le Roy and a connection to Batavia.

All routes will meet at a common transfer point at Batavia City Centre. Dial-a-Ride service will remain as an option. Schedules and holiday observances are available on the RTS website. 

For more information, call RTS Genesee at 585-343-3079 or visit www.myRTS.com.

If you’ve ever wanted a little workout space to call your own where you can exercise in peace without worrying about anyone else watching, interrupting, or—please, no—offering unsolicited advice, then personal trainer and entrepreneur Macy Paradise has the Flex Space for you.

Paradise, who formerly operated The Brick, a community-based fitness center on Harvester Avenue, for the past four years, has moved into a 2,000-square-foot revamped site at 8 Batavia City Centre.

True to its name, Flex Space offers the flexibility for anyone to work out at any time — 24 hours a day — without the hassle of a membership or fellow members competing for equipment or privacy, he says.

“So the training space is a 24/7 exclusive gym. You would sign up for a time slot by the half-hour on my website and pay. It’s cashless, and it’s yours for however long you book it. The customer will receive a code to access the gym during that time for exclusive use,” Paradise said to The Batavian while preparing for his grand opening. “The goal was to give people a private space, to help the person who wants to come in and train on their own (or book with a friend at a discount).”

An adjacent but separate event room can accommodate up to 100 people for birthday parties and special events or exercise classes and seminars. He has 12 tables, more than 100 chairs, a prep table, a projector, a full-size refrigerator and security of an easy entrance/exit and nearby parking lot, he said.

He created a gym and event space out of what used to be there, he said, which required redoing all of the floors and part of the ceilings, stringing Edison lights, installing central air, and “recreating the space that was left” by the former tenant by opening the space up to get all of the exercise equipment in there.

The lobby has an old-school vibe, with vintage furniture, plus some plants and ivy growing off the walls to give it “an earthy vibe,” he said.

What does Paradise know about fitness? Well, there’s his own journey — once weighing in at 300 pounds, he finally decided to get right with his own well-being, and lost more than 100 pounds, and got into the physical, mental and nutritional aspects of fitness. 

The 39-year-old is certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine and offers nutritional counseling and meal planning. He said he still has some openings for personal training, given his busy schedule that starts in the morning at his longtime haunt, Elba's Backyard Barbell and ends in Batavia. 

His new gym has a range of equipment, from cable machines, free weights, a Smith machine, squat rack, dumbbells, and leg press to a Stairmaster, recumbent bike, treadmill, elliptical, box jumps, medicine balls and resistance training items such as a sled.

Everyone has their own niche in terms of personal training, and his leans toward working with women ages 30 and up to his oldest client of 78, currently. He’s looking for trainers and instructors that may be interested in renting space for their clients or classes on a weekly or weekend basis. 

After all, that’s what the name is all about — it’s a Flex Space open to accommodate one’s needs for fitness and recreational pursuits. 

Paradise invites everyone to come check it out during his opening, which includes a ribbon-cutting at 4 p.m. July 19, and then from 5 to 7 p.m. there’s “a big party” with a small group fitness class, a tour of the gym and event space, and food and refreshments from Everybody Eats. 

If you park in the lot near the former Sunny’s restaurant, use the purple door next to Batavia Family Dental. For more information, go to macyparadisefit.com, and once he has his opening, bookings can be made at www.flxspce.com.

Walls came tumbling down, finally, on Monday as workers began to overhaul the silo entrances at Batavia City Centre. 

Work has been planned for several months, and equipment and crews arrived at the downtown site to begin the demolition process.

"Based on the timeline we received from the architect and project manager, we are looking at a 60 to 90 day timeline from today for completion," Assistant City Manager Erik Fix said Monday afternoon.  "The demo today was a welcome site as you can imagine.  We started with the Sunny’s entrance and will proceed with demolition to the three other Silo’d entrances estimated a 10 to 12 day demolition timeline for all four entrances.  

"Once demo is complete they will work on concrete work/foundations and then structured steel (estimated time is another 24 days). That will be followed up with framing, roofing, and installation of the glass and other materials for the storefront entrances."

That work is scheduled to take four to five weeks. Masonry, brick and interior finishes will follow all of that, and take about two to three additional weeks, Fix said.  

"Site work will wrap it up and we hope to be done by mid-August to early September. The plan is to keep contractors on and work on all four sites at one time," he said. "So rather than start one entrance, finish it and work on the next, we save time and money by doing each phase on all four pieces at the same time. Of course this is all tentative and dependent on materials and manpower, but that is the plan going forward."

Downtown Revitalization Initiative funding of about $1 million has been set aside for the silo project, with $120,000 for the design process and the remaining money for actually redesigning the silos.

Photos by Howard Owens

Press Release:

GO ART! is excited to host the Western New York Steel Band Festival for its second year on Saturday, April 13, at 2:30 p.m., in the Batavia City Centre. Organized by teaching artist and percussionist Ted Canning, the event welcomes everyone to enjoy steel pan bands performing on this instrument developed in Trinidad and Tobago. 

Admission is a $5 suggested donation, and ample parking is available at the City Centre.  The Western New York Steel Band Festival is being presented as part of the activities of GLOW Creatives, a group of 10 artists (including Canning) at GO ART! who received a grant from the Creatives Rebuild New York Artist Employment Program, supported by the Mellon Foundation. 

GO ART! programming is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts, which has the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Doors open at 2 p.m. for the public. Attendees can view a new City Center statue created collaboratively by GLOW Creatives artists Bill Schutt, Dan Butler, and Jill Pettigrew. 

Ithaca College’s IC Steel, Steel Alchemy Community Steelband, Rochester Institute of Technology’s Tiger Steel, Lancaster High School Carnival Kids Steel Orchestra, and Panloco Steelband are featured bands. 

The bands will showcase Caribbean music while also illustrating the many genres and rhythms that steel bands commonly perform. The concert will conclude on a high note with a joint performance of all the bands—about 70 players in all!

Carnival Kids Steel Orchestra was started by John Marone in 1974 and is the third oldest established continuing steel drum program in the United States. The group performs numerous concerts and events annually in the greater Buffalo area, has produced several recordings, and has traveled from Philadelphia, Chicago, Disney World, and Trinidad.

IC Steel was established in the 1990s by percussionist Gordon Stout and continues to offer students the opportunity for a diverse ensemble experience at the college. 

The RIT Tiger Steel band is an ensemble offered through the School of the Performing Arts, a campus-wide initiative to enhance the arts experience for all students. They have represented the university at events off campus and were featured in the 2022 holiday video card for the university. 

Steel Alchemy was formed in 2001 as a community-based band, open to anyone ages 13 and older. With an emphasis on intergenerational group learning, the band performs at town festivals, concert series, and private events throughout the Genesee Valley. 

Established in 1995, Panloco Steelband explores the unique musical qualities of the pan from its traditional Caribbean roots to pop, jazz, classical, and styles from around the world. They perform at private and public events in the region and with international performances in Sicily, Mexico City, and Siena, Italy.

“I’m excited to bring this festival to Batavia again,” says Canning.  “It might be surprising for people to learn that our part of the state has a significant connection to the Trinidadian steel band tradition and its founders, from the groups featured at the festival as well as Paul Ferrette’s Caribbean Extravaganza in Buffalo, Al St. John’s Trinidad and Tobago Steel band in Rochester, and a history of school bands in Rochester, Randolph, Ithaca, Naples, and Dundee. I’m looking forward to sharing this music with our community—it will be a great time!”

If you thought downtown Batavia was at all hampered by some traffic cones and a driving lane shutdown these past several weeks, that was just the appetizer for an ambitious entree of construction projects at Batavia City Centre beginning this April, and a corner city parking lot a few months later, city management says.

A water project along Bank Street from Main Street to Washington Avenue has caused the shutdown of one lane and slowed traffic for several weeks now, as Phase I of a three-phase project in that section of the downtown area. Phase II will be the new police station and a groundbreaking in the parking lot at Alva Place and Bank Street is expected to begin early this summer.

The police station, which will eventually move the department out of its 10 Main St. headquarters at Brisbane Mansion next to the county jail, will begin its journey of construction across from the Jerome Center in late spring, or early summer, Public Works Director Brett Frank said.

A third phase will complete the work in 2025 with a streetscape to more narrowly confine Bank Street, Frank said during Monday’s business meeting.

“So the Bank Street water project, first off … we've got four service connections to put in there. And then in springtime, final pavement will be done. So that'll take care of that water main project. So we're actually going to do this project in three phases. It's gonna be about a month of kind of being torn up. So we started with the water line in the spring, early summer, we're looking to break ground in a new police station. So we'll do that," Frank said. "And then as that kind of comes to close to being done, we're also entering into a Bank Street traffic calming and streetscape enhancement project. Right now we're at about 50 percent as far as designs are concerned, so that will take place on the back end of the police station. 

"So that'll kind of be what culminates, wraps everything, kind of ties it all together. Right now, tentatively, we're looking at 2025, next summer, as to actually the following summer, as to when we get into construction for that project," he said. "That will be a typical project where we’ll go to bid. It is a federal project like the Richmond Harvester project where it's at 80 percent federally reimbursed, and the remaining 20 percent will be paid for using funding. So it'll be the source of revenue for that.”

The Bank Street water project received a $334,000 grant for the total $418,000 project cost, and the city received a $2.5 million USDA grant to put towards the $15.5 million police station expense. A $944,934 grant will offset the total $1,113,920 cost of the Bank Streetscape project, which is the only one of those three still in the design phase. 

Those damp, moldy mall entrances will finally get torn out and replaced beginning April 15, Erik Fix says. 

Contracts are in place and the contractors are working on the procurement of supplies, the assistant city manager said Friday in response to The Batavian’s request for an update.

“The plan is to have everything needed on site prior to starting, so once we demo, the project can be finished in 60 to 90 days, so that we can limit the amount of time we cannot use certain entrances,” Fix said.  “Some HVAC and electrical work may take place prior to the April 15th date, but that is when you will start to see the demolition taking place. The silos need to be taken apart one piece at a time, so it won’t be like a wrecking ball-type situation.  There will be plenty of communication prior to the start date to ensure the public will know how to access the mall.”

The entrances at City Hall and near Dan’s Tire will remain as is, so the public will have access to them throughout the silo replacement process. 

“We’re hoping to begin demolition all at once, they will take them all down and build them all backup,” he said during Monday’s City Council business meeting.

Downtown Revitalization Initiative funding of about $1 million has been set aside for the silo project, with $120,000 for the design process and the remaining money for actually redesigning the silos. 

In 1984, Pete Rose returned to the Cincinnati Reds as a player-manager, Lee Trevino won his second PGA championship, the last Volkswagen Rabbit was produced, and Prince’s “When Doves Cry” was a Number One hit.

It was also the year that Bob Chiarmonte took a leap and got into business with Classic Optical, taking up his first property next to the former Jack’s Sports shop, now Hawley’s Insurance, in what was originally the Genesee Country Mall. Nine years later, in October 1993, Chiarmonte moved to his current location at 44 Batavia City Centre, and now Chiarmonte has retired and closed the store after nearly 40 years. 

A lot of things have changed during that time — the mall had many more clothing and shoe stores — and there was a longtime Sterling Optical that had been where the current Batavia Stagecoach Florist is, he said.

“I thought it’s either the craziest thing I’ve ever done or the smartest thing I’ve ever done,” Chiarmonte said during an interview Friday. “They closed the following year. It was just my luck I moved here when I did.”

That’s one of the memories he’ll hang onto now that he has retired as of the end of December. He obtained his business certificate on Aug. 9, 1984, and it would be 40 years this August of sustaining all of the challenges of legal woes between the Mall Merchants Association and the city, the aftermath of Urban Renewal, COVID and the resulting pandemic, and the typical ups and downs of operating a business in changing economic times. 

“COVID was tough because I was closed for three months. A lot of businesses went out of business right after COVID, because it's hard to get through that. I was able to do it … I'm sure I lost customers during the time because people don't wait. But I have a lot of loyal people that stayed with me. I'm very grateful for that,” he said. “A lot of the clientele that I've retained over the years actually became friends. So I will miss the friendship from the people that I got close with over that period. I have had some very loyal clients for all 39 years.” 

You might say that Chiarmonte’s path was chiseled while he was still at Williamsville North High School. His brother David, four years older than Bob, was an optician, and his father suggested that Bob also go into the field.

“So that's where I got the idea started. I got a job at a laboratory in downtown Buffalo making eyewear. So I was a lab technician, and I did that for several years, and then just decided that if I was going to stay in the business, I should go back to school, and get my license,” he said. “So that's what I did. Which, consequently, is when I met my wife, she's also an optician.”

He went to Erie Community College, which is where he met his wife, Lisa. After working some more, he wanted his own optical business, and ended up purchasing the Batavia location through a Buffalo optometrist who also had other locations, he said.

That optometrist had a lucrative state contract that catered to union personnel, such as prison guards, for Genesee, Wyoming and Orleans counties, and that “brought a lot of people to me,” Chiarmonte said. It was only when he wanted to slow down a bit that he signed off the contract and cut back on his hours three years ago, he said. 

He acknowledged that he was an eager 28-year-old when he first began, and now, at 68, he’s ready to take a pause to enjoy and visit family, which includes daughters Tristen in Colorado and Leah and his grandson in Vermont, and travel. 

He’s proud of what he and his wife largely did by themselves when moving into their current 1,100 square-foot site, which used to house a bank, Chiarmonte said, pointing in front of the counter to indicate where the teller line used to be. 

They had a wall and doorway built to form an exam room on the other side of the main reception and display area, and he built the mounts for glass shelving that displays eyeglasses. Lisa refinished all of the furniture — benches and chairs — that greets customers. 

At its height, Classic Optical employed four staff for reception, frame styling, and billing work, plus an optician. 

He served as president of the Mall Merchants Association for six years and was happy to see a final positive outcome when both sides came to an agreement. He believes that he is leaving the mall on good terms for the future, he said.

“The roof is fixed. All entrances are next on the docket. And there have been a few sales of property here, and a couple of new businesses that have opened. And I think if we continue on this path, I think it's gonna get better,” Chiarmonte said. “I’d like to see something happen with Penney's space, it's such a good space, but otherwise, I think the smaller spaces are going to be easier to sell. 

“I’ll still be in contact. I still have friends here, so people will see me around here and there. I spent more of my life in Batavia than I did in Buffalo where I was born,” he said. 

Chiarmonte has closed his shop, and plans to sell off the merchandise and eventually sell the property, he said. 

If you’re a believer in locally sourced products, made-in-the-USA goods or supporting small business, the Batavia Indoor Market is here to provide that opportunity, organizers say.

“Everything’s all homemade, it’s quality; it’s not coming out of China,” said Adam Garner of Garner Farms in Le Roy. “And there’s an online market of local vendors. You can order online and pick it up on Saturday just like you would at the grocery store. It’s a one-stop shop. There’s milk and eggs, produce, veggies and fruit, meat, mushrooms and cheeses.”

The market runs from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. this Saturday, Nov. 4 and 18, Dec. 16, Jan. 6 and 20, Feb. 3 and 17, and March 2, 16 and 30. It is inside Batavia City Centre, downtown Batavia.

In the market for some amaranth microgreens? Or maybe some honey nut squash, large blue doll pumpkins, Honeycrisp apples, maple syrup that’s chocolate infused, dinosaur kale or broccoli microgreens, perhaps? Or how about lion’s mane mushrooms to shake up that stir fry?

The online market lists 176 items, and orders will be open from 8 a.m. Mondays through 8 p.m. Thursdays the week of each market. Available items will change based on the season.

The items are listed on the site, where orders are placed and purchased. Current online vendors listed are Flint’s Maple, Botanical Ben, Garner Farms and Creekside Designs and Blanks.

City Centre regulars are to include Relevé Dancewear, Everybody Eats, Batavia Stagecoach Florist, Sandman Wood Designs and Magick Smoque Shoppe, with visiting vendors at each market. This week’s market includes:

• Porter Farms - fresh vegetables, ground beef and lamb
• Garner Farms - pasture-raised pork and chicken with fresh eggs (when available), homemade lard soap
• Ladybugs Creations - custom gifts, including 3D prints
• Meadow Moon Designs - jewelry and accessories
• For the Love of Madeline Candles - handmade candles

As for his own products, Garner is proud to tell people about the heritage pork and chicken products that come from his Le Roy-based farm.

“Our pork and chicken is pasture-raised," he said. "They’re naturally raised, with no hormones or antibiotics."

To check out the online market, go HERE

For more information about the indoor market, email director@bataviadevelopmentcorp.org or call 585-813-8054. 

After what has seemed like a lengthy ordeal, a set of new, downscaled, and more affordable designs for the City Centre entryways have finally come back for final approval, City Manager Rachael Tabelski says.

This project has been time-consuming, especially since prior bids have been too high for the city’s allowance, and redesigns have had to incorporate different elements to adjust the price.

“Because the first round of designs came in way over budget. We didn't have to bid this out to realize we were over budget. We use a cost service company that kind of costs out your design and says, oh, this is what we think it'll cost, and it was higher than it needed to be,” she said to The Batavian Tuesday. “So we had to scale back a little bit on the design side, but we think we'll have a really nice project, and those silos will be coming down. 

“And we're going to be asking council to award those Tuesday.  It's going to be on a special conference, and then, hopefully, the business meeting (agenda).”

The four silos are separate tubed sections within each of the entryways of Batavia City Centre. They have been leaking and getting moldy, and city officials have wanted to change them out for quite some time.

They hit a snag when prior bids came in beyond their budget, and designs had to go back for revamping to reduce the scope and price tag. The city has set aside $1 million of grant money for the project.

City Council’s business meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10 at City Hall. 

He’s caused some excitement with a post online about his future business moving into Batavia City Centre, however, Zeke Lynn won’t be in moving in just yet, he says.

Everybody will get a chance to eat at Everybody Eats probably by the end of September or early October, Lynn said Monday to The Batavian. He is renting the site at 29 Batavia City Centre — the space with the checkerboard black-and-white floor once known as Cookies and Milk and other cafe operations.

“I’m hoping to be open within a month or two, I’ll be in there cleaning and I’ve got to get a few appliances, and a health permit,” he said.

When asked what the tagline of his place would be, the name says it all, he said. He plans to make it for mostly catering and take-out, for sandwiches, soups, salads, pastas, steak, and a few chicken dishes. The key is that there will be “things you don’t see around Batavia,” he said.

Think: Beef Wellington and butter chicken. Who is the chef behind the apron? A 2014 Batavia High School grad who began his cooking journey at as a kid, and never stopped.

“I really fell in love with cooking,” he said. 

He studied a bit at Brockport State College and worked at restaurants, where he “fell in love with it.”

“I’ve been cooking since I was five, I learned from my mom. I’ve always had a passion for it,” the 26-year-old said. “This is really a passion project more than anything.”

He would like to establish a cooking class at least once a week after he opens and is thinking of having wine and beer at some point for a tastings and pairings experience.

Press Release:

The Batavia Development Corporation (BDC) is looking for vendors to participate in the City Centre Concourse Mall Market.

The Mall Market’s mission is to assist in revitalizing the Batavia City Centre Mall and we invite residents to attend the market and to aid in supporting our local businesses.

The Mall Market will be open from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturdays starting February 4  through May 27, 2023. (It will be closed April 15.)

BDC welcomes home business vendors, crafters, farmer market stands, etc. to apply and promote their business products.

The vending registration fee is $20 per Saturday, with the first vending visit being free.

Anyone interested in endorsing their business or promoting their products is encouraged to apply HERE.

Have questions, contact BDC Director Tammy Hathaway at (585) 345-6380.

While gathered around a table in the middle of the mall concourse Thursday, a group of stakeholders reminisced about the “hits and misses” during an impromptu mall market for several Saturdays last fall.

The group was led by Tammy Hathaway, director of Batavia Development Corporation, who had surveyed participants for feedback about how the market went in a first-time trial run.

“What a great group of people, it's the right group of people to assess that small little field test of using the City Centre concourse, as a little bit of momentum, like a market vendor space. We had fantastic feedback, and it was positive,” Hathaway said. “We want hits and misses, so that we can make it better, and everyone wants to move forward."

She appreciated their honesty about the critiques, and also about the one unanimous sentiment, Hathaway said.

“Every single one of them enjoyed being in here,” she said.

Issues to be worked out include pricing — which vendors said was too high at $40 per day — and the market’s hours of 8:30 to 11 a.m.

“Batavia doesn’t wake up until 10 a.m.,” vendor Adam Garner said.

Garner, a fifth generation member of Garner Farms of Le Roy, has participated in other markets in Le Roy and Rochester, and offered his perspective about what seems to work elsewhere.

Garner Farms was a regular at Batavia’s mall market with heritage pork and chicken products, and he looks forward to continuing to be part of it.

“Overall, it was good. There were weeks that were slow, but weeks, there's weeks that were above, that we had a lot more people than I expected. We’re hoping to get to expand as we have more people coming in here,” he said. “So we have an indoor market. There's nothing around here. The only indoor market I know is down in Ithaca. So we do Le Roy farmers market. We're looking into doing a couple in Rochester. I do one in the South Wedge. And then we do vendor events that we do in Le Roy. Our farm began in 1932 and it will be 100 years old.”

The group discussed moving the hours so they would linger into the early afternoon, say from 10:30 a.m. to around 1:30 p.m. Hathaway received a lot of feedback that a majority of vendors thought the total hours should be capped at three hours, with a rationale of preferring to make $150 in three hours versus $175 in four.

City maintenance worker Tom Phelps said that the mall facility used to be open to 2 p.m., and that was eventually reduced to not being open at all on Saturdays during COVID season, and now is back to being open to noon.

Other areas of consideration involve requiring vendors to have insurance coverage, making access easier for vendors with larger or bulky items, including some type of coffee station, how best to promote the event, and making it a family-friendly market with rotating activities and themes.

The general consensus of group members Loretta Delpriore of Batavia Stagecoach Florist, Katie Hobbs of Genesee County Chamber of Commerce, Garner, Phelps, Pat Burk of Theater 56 and Hathaway was to resume the market on Feb. 4 with a focus on Valentine’s Day, and integrate themes from there onward. Hobbs manages a market for the village of Corfu and offered ideas to include kids in these events as well.

“So we created a very large to do-list of items to make this move forward. And it's great to have participants, everyone who sat at this meeting today participated in the meeting, and has the same passion for seeing this building full of life,” Hathaway said. “The goal is February 4 to reinstate the Saturday mall market and have revised hours and make it totally revised.

“I think we'll definitely go to mid to end of May,” she said. “So we'll have a little bit of time to let everybody breathe, regroup and everything before the outdoor farmers market begins.”

Photo of Tammy Hathaway of Batavia Development Corporation, left, Loretta Delpriore of Batavia Stagecoach Florist, Pat Burk of Theater 56, Katie Hobbs of Genesee County Chamber of Commerce, Adam Garner of Garner Farms and city maintenance staff Tom Phelps evaluate last year's Saturday mall market in an effort to move forward with the concept beginning Feb. 4. Photo by Joanne Beck. 

There are only two dates left for the Mall Markets on weekends at Batavia City Centre.

This week's Mall Market is to feature Porter Farms, Tastefully Simple, Garner Farms, Dilcher's Concessions, Tag-It Custom Creations, Wright's Homestead and Max Pie's Furniture.

The Dec. 17 registered vendors include Porter Farms, Tastefully Simple, Garner Farms, Dilcher's Concessions, Tag-It Custom Creations, Wright's Homestead, Max Pie's Furniture, Gracefully Designed, Flint's Maple, and Children Awaiting Parents.

The market will run from 8 to 11:30 a.m. on these Saturdays at Batavia City Centre, downtown Batavia.

Batavia City Centre's concourse was bustling with sellers and shoppers during a vendor fair fundraiser hosted by and for All Babies Cherished Saturday in Batavia. Dozens of merchants and crafts people put their wares on display for early holiday shopping or to purchase a special treat to take home. 

Photos by Howard Owens.

Meat and potatoes man: City Councilman Al McGinnis gets some food supplies downtown at the first-time Mall Market Saturday at Batavia City Centre. Kathy Riggs-Allen of Porter Farms was on hand with some of the Elba-based farm's produce. 

Four vendors and Batavia Stagecoach Florist greeted shoppers Saturday morning during the first of several Mall Markets at Batavia City Centre.

City Manager Rachael Tabelski and City Councilman Al McGinnis stopped by to check out the goods offered by local farms and companies set up in the mall concourse.

“Several other vendors will be joining in the coming weeks,” Tabelski said. “There were shoppers, but we need to grow awareness. The vendors all agreed it's a start.”

Considered a “launching point” for the initiative to put the otherwise vacant concourse to better use, city officials plan to continue the market throughout the end of this year. 

Hours are 8 to 11:30 a.m. on the following Saturdays:

Nov. 12, Nov. 19, Nov. 26, Dec. 10, and Dec. 17

Applications are still being accepted for vendors. The Mall Market's mission is to assist in the revitalization of the Batavia City Centre Mall. The cost of a 10 x 10 space is $40 per day, $100 for three days, and $125 for six days. 

Anyone interested in endorsing their business or promoting their products is encouraged to apply.

Tabelski has been promoting the weekend market, and plans to put her money where her mouth is.

“I will be there to shop as often as possible,” she said.

Photo courtesy of Rachael Tabelski.