New 50,000 Square Foot Grocery Store Proposed For Hoosick Road
by Doug La Rocque
The Building Department in the Town of Brunswick has confirmed to The Eastwick Press preliminary plans have been presented to the office for the construction of a large grocery store in what is often referred to as Duncan’s Meadow, lands located between Duncan Lane and Hoosick Road (NYS Route 7). This is directly across the street from Planet Fitness, and where a proposed Aldi’s grocery store, a Wendy’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) would be built. This so called “sketch plan” may be presented to the Planning Board at the Thursday, September 16 meeting.
As this is still preliminary, only the developer’s representative, MJ Engineering, is identified so far. The name of the developer and what grocery store may be built there has not yet been disclosed, and need not be so until an actual site plan is filed. That, of course, does not stop speculation that it might be a Shop Rite or a Trader Joe’s. It is often said Aldi’s and Trader Joe’s are owned by the same parent firm, but are actually separate companies operating independently of each other.
There is a connection between the two however. Aldi’s Sud (south) owns the Aldi’s stores in the United States, while Aldi’s Nord (north) operates in Europe but does own the Trader Joe’s in the U.S. The separate Aldi’s were formed when two brothers who inherited the original Aldi’s from their father, parted ways. Also of interest, is that MJ Engineering is developer David Leon’s representative for the Aldi’s, Wendy’s and KFC complex across the road.
Just the Aldi’s was approved by the Planning Board several years ago, but that authorization expired when no building permits were ever applied for. The hold up there was Aldi’s insistence upon a traffic light at Hoosick Road and Hillside Avenue, something the NYS Department of Transportation (DOT) would not approve. The new Aldi’s proposal calls for a traffic light at the junction with Lord Avenue, and was approved by DOT because of an interconnectivity it would create for the homes in the back of the complex. The new grocery store proposal shows entry to that site would be off Lord Avenue. Just east of this proposed store is a Market 32 (Price Chopper) and a Walmart with a full grocery section.
The Eastwick Press will be at the Planning Board meeting, and if the new store is identified, we will post it on our Facebook page and website, as well as in next week’s Planning Board report.