Will open Dec. 15 – same day as incoming Aldi on Route 20
By Jason Emerson
Editor
The rumors going around the community are true: A Dollar Tree store is coming to Cazenovia. The new store will be in the consolidated spaces of the former Sears and Zoom Tan in the Town and Country Plaza on Route 20.
Not only will this be the second discount retail store to come to Caz this year — along with the new Aldi opening a few hundred yards down Route 20 — but both will be opening on the same day: Friday, Dec. 15.
“Two great discount retailers are coming into town and opening on the same day — hopefully this will keep shopping in the community instead of people leaving all the time and going to Erie Boulevard,” said developer Dave Muraco, owner of Empire Management Company, who convinced Dollar Tree to come to Cazenovia and leased them the space. “There’s been a need [for this] forever in Caz.”
Dollar Tree, Inc. describes itself as “a customer-oriented, value-driven variety store operating at a one-dollar price point.” Its stores carry a mix of merchandise that includes national and regional brands with products including housewares, glassware, dinnerware, cleaning supplies, food, health and beauty, toys, gifts, party supplies, stationery, craft supplies, seasonal décor and more.
Dollar Tree describes its stores as being bright and well lit, clean and well organized, and “stocked with endless hidden treasures.”
Muraco said he worked hard to get Dollar Tree to Cazenovia because he has worked with the company before, but he also believes they are the nicest of all the dollar discount stores in the marketplace. “They do a better, quality build-out and their products are good quality, some name brands and inexpensive items,” he said.
For weeks, work crews have been doing demolition work in the former Sears and Zoom Tan store spaces to prepare for Dollar Tree to take possession of the space, Muraco said. “We consolidated what was at one time almost four tenants down to one tenant, and that’s Dollar Tree,” he said. “It’s going be a brand new store – everything in there will be brand new.”
Empire Management delivered the space to Dollar Tree on Wednesday, Oct. 25, and the scheduled store opening is Dec. 15, Muraco said.
Muraco owns and leases multiple commercial and residential spaces in the village of Cazenovia and, for the first time in 31 years, every one of them is currently occupied. It’s a “good sign” of the positive business trend in Cazenovia, he said, and he believes that having Aldi coming to Cazenovia has helped.
Mayor Kurt Wheeler agreed. “There seems to be an improvement in the business climate in the village and we hope that will continue,” he said. “While some people feared the Aldi would create ‘urban blight,’ we’re seeing the opposite — it’s creating interest, even downtown.”
In addition to filling his existing commercial properties, Muraco, and his company New Venture Assets, is also building commercial and residential buildings around the site of the Aldi on Route 20. Muraco said he plans to begin construction on the first of those buildings next spring, with shovels in the ground in April. His first project has its architectural review hearing before the village planning board on Monday, Nov. 13.
