Photo by Howard Owens.
In 2021, J&R Fancher Property Holdings started construction on a mixed-use -- apartments and retail -- near Brickhouse Corners in Pembroke, and given the demand for those six units in that complex, Randy Fancher is confident his new housing project will be a success.
Fancher met with the Genesee County Planning Board on Thursday night to discuss his plans for two new 10-unit townhouse complexes in the same location.
"The apartments -- they went great. The retail, not so much," Fancher said. "We have six apartments. We got 150 phone calls in the first year we stopped tracking. So, I'm very confident the apartments will rent."
The townhouses, dubbed "Brickhouse Commons," will be market rate, Fancher said, and a bit more higher end than might currently be available in Pembroke. Each unit will have its own garage and private entry. The design has been previously used and successful, in Buffalo and Rochester, he said.
One of the primary complications facing the project is the presence of a wetland on the property, which requires a 100-foot buffer for any building or roadway. The Department of Environmental Conservation requires a "delineation" every five years to determine the boundaries of the wetlands, which grow and recede over time. There hasn't been a delineation on the property in six years, before Fancher acquired it from the Genesee County Economic Development Center. A new delineation could take up to a year to certify.
That changed Fancher's plans for the driveway to the apartments. At GCEDC's suggestion, he's now planning to connect the complex to Route 77, requiring a curb cut, which requires the approval of the Department of Transportation. That permit is expected to take less time to receive.
Fancher is planning to apply for incentives, as he did with the first projects, from the GCEDC.
He told the board, "When we built that building, the incentives were for mixed use, which is why we did mixed use. Now the IDA is giving incentives for apartments only."
The retail portion of the Fancher-built mixed-use project, completed in 2022, has been hard to fill, Fancher told the board, because it's expensive to start a new business in a new retail space.
"To be honest, I thought it would go better (for the retail units," Fancher said. "We've gotten a lot of phone calls, but it's expensive. I mean, for anybody to come in there, because it's a new building and it has to be built out, right? I mean, it's expensive for us. It's expensive for them."
The board recommended approval of the site plan, which sends the plan back to the Town of Pembroke Planning Board for final development approval, but with modifications.
- The applicant obtains an area variance for front yard setback;
- The applicant obtains a driveway permit from NYS DOT;
- The applicant obtains documentation from the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) as to the project's impacts on archaeological resources;
- The applicant obtains any necessary permits from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) as it relates to threatened or endangered species.
Given that the project will disturb more than one acre of land, the applicant completes a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) and obtains a Stormwater Permit for Construction Activity from NYS DEC; and
Any additional signage complies with the Town's zoning regulations.
The endangered species of concern that is potentially on the property is the Northern Long-Eared Bat.
Fancher, a 20-year resident of Pembroke, is also hoping to develop another parcel in the same location, and that it will be a commercial project that will benefit the entire town.
"Our hope is to get a larger chain that would be good for the community, a grocery store, or something, but some sort of commercial project," Fancher told The Batavian after the meeting. "Something that would be good for the town of Pembroke. I believe the town of Pembroke is really growing with all the stuff that's going on. We want to do it responsibly and smart. We don't want to just blow it up, make it Buffalo. But I think, you know, smart growth in that area that's classified as an interchange is good for the town."
