00:00Eyesores o oportunidades.
00:02Empty Walmarts sit all over the country,
00:04including right here in Lockport, Amherst,
00:06and now Chicktawaga.
00:07But if it's not Walmarts' responsibility
00:09to keep the vacant properties viable,
00:11then who?
00:12As 7 Eyewitness News reporter Jill Perkins tells us
00:14one of these towns is already taking action,
00:17hopeful to bring a new box store to western New York.
00:21Whether you like them...
00:22Save money, live better.
00:24Or not.
00:25We love power!
00:27Walmarts stores are a part of the western New York community.
00:30But what happens when the neighborhood store moves
00:32to a bigger, better location
00:34and leaves behind what the industry calls dark stores,
00:38like this one in Chicktawaga's Thruway Plaza?
00:40Walmart still has their lease.
00:42The owner of the plaza is DDR Development.
00:46And that means the future of this dark store
00:48is out of Chicktawaga Town Supervisor Diane Benchkowski's hands.
00:52A big concern of hers is the other stores left behind
00:55in the Thruway Plaza will lose business with Walmart gone.
00:58The retail giant opened a new supercenter
01:01just a few miles away last month.
01:03But even though the property is Cleveland-based DDRs to sell,
01:07Chicktawaga is targeting a store many in western New York
01:11could be excited about.
01:12We could do so much with it.
01:14I know that we've reached out to Ikea
01:17to possibly come to Chicktawaga,
01:19and I think that would be a great location for them.
01:21But Chicktawaga isn't the only place in western New York
01:24where dark stores exist.
01:26Vacant Walmart storefronts sit in Amherst and Lockport.
01:29But in these cases, the buildings are no longer Walmart's responsibility
01:33because their leases expired in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
01:38A spokesman for Walmart told me, quote,
01:41We will continue to maintain our Chicktawaga property on the weekly basis until our lease is up.
01:46At that time, whoever owns the building would be responsible for upkeep and maintenance,
01:51which would be the current case in Amherst and Lockport.
01:54The spokesman also said Walmart does what they can to market dark stores for new use.
01:59In McAllen, Texas, this old Walmart is now a 23,000-square-foot public library.
02:04The Amherst dark store is owned by the Benchmark Group,
02:08and in Lockport, town officials who didn't want to appear on camera
02:12say the property also belongs to DDR,
02:14which is looking to sell it to Flom Management out of Rochester.
02:18I've reached out to all three companies and have yet to hear back.
02:22When it comes to Ikea, they have no plans to come to western New York
02:25because at this time, we don't meet their population criteria.
02:29Jill Perkins, 7 Eyewitness News.
02:31Thank you, Jill. It's been a very busy night for Jill Perkins.
02:33Yes, playing triple duty for us.
02:35Very nice job, as always.
