Liverpool — New England donut entrepreneur Ed Wolak has set his sights on the village of Liverpool.
Wolak’s ESW Realty, LLC, sent architect Bob Abbott to appear before the Liverpool Village Planning Board on Dec. 28 to describe the company’s plan to build a Dunkin’ Donuts shop at 105 Second St., the former location of Seneca Savings Bank.
Dunkin’ Donuts already has eight restaurants in the Liverpool area — two on Route 57, two on Seventh North Street, one on Route 31, one in Great Northern Mall, one on West Taft Road and one on Henry Clay Boulevard.
Abbott said the shop here would feature a drive-thru window, but planning board member Jim Taft said a drive-thru component may necessitate a zoning change, which would have to be granted by the Village Board of Trustees.
The ESW plan provides for 19 parking spaces on site in lots located on each side of the building. Alternate board member Michael LaMontagne suggested that a traffic study could be warranted.
Abbott pointed out that Dunkin’ Donuts locations typically do approximately 50 percent of their business at the drive-thru window.
Dunkin’ Donuts would like to keep the large sign including a clock that stood for decades in front of the bank. “We’d change the graphics, but keep the clock,” Abbott said.
But Planning Board Chairman Joe Ostuni Jr. said that the village’s Comprehensive Plan discourages tall, pylon signs. “So I’m sure we’ll talk about that some more,” Ostuni said.
Several years ago, Dunkin’ Donuts had considered buying the old Burger King location at 510 Oswego St. Instead, Empire Subs opened there in November 2013; last year the sandwich shop was renamed Heartland Subs. Dunkin’ Donuts reportedly passed on that location because of its location on the east side of Oswego Street. Most morning traffic rolls in the western lane of the road toward the city of Syracuse. The Second Street location is on the west side of the street.
continued — The planning board will continue to review the Dunkin Donuts site plan at future meetings, and ESW will consider applying for a zone change to allow for a drive-thru window.
Dunkin’ Donuts is one of the largest coffee and baked goods chains in the world, with more than 8,000 restaurants in the United States and another 3,000 or so in 32 other countries.
Despite the company’s wide popularity, a few folks in Liverpool stand opposed to its plan to move into the village.
Liverpool resident Raymond Finney, who attended the Dec. 28 meeting, asked Ostuni if the public would be able to voice its opinion on the site plan at future meetings. Ostuni assured him there would be ample opportunity for public comment.
“I oppose the idea of allowing a Dunkin’ Donuts to be operated with in the village of Liverpool,” Finney recent posted on the village Facebook page. “We have local, small businesses in town which serve coffee and other breakfast foods. I believe a [Dunkin’ Donuts] would create more traffic in our already congested streets making for a more dangerous and noisy village.”
The first Dunkin’ Donuts was opened in 1950 in Quincy, Mass., by founder William Rosenberg. In 1967, when there were fewer than 250 Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in the entire country, Ed Wolak began working for the company in New Hampshire.
Since 1998, the Wolak Group, based in Portland, Maine, expanded its activities to Central New York. Today The Wolak Group and its affiliates own and operate more than 70 Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants in Maine, New Hampshire and New York, as well as a 21,000-square-foot automated central production facility in Syracuse. That facility produces and delivers baked goods daily to its regional restaurants.
