WISE BUYS TO FILL FORMER AMES SITE; DEPARTMENT AND GROCERY STORE IS TO OPEN IN OCTOBER, HAMILTON MAYOR SAYS.(Local)
From: The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) Date: June 28, 2004
Byline: Glenn Coin Staff writer
The former Ames Department Store in Hamilton soon will be filled by a Wise Buys store, village Mayor Charlie Getchonis said.
"It's probably the biggest thing that has happened in Hamilton since Ames left," Getchonis said. "That is the question I have heard the most in the last two years: "What are we getting in there?"'
Ames went bankrupt in 2002 and closed all of its stores, including the one on Route 12B at the north end of Hamilton. The 43,000-square-foot store has been empty since.
A deal that would have brought an Ace hardware store into part of the building collapsed earlier this month.
Bill Parry, owner of the Parry's store on Broad Street in the village, said Wise Buys won't have much effect on his business. He toured the Wise Buys store in Gouverneur and said it had 10 aisles of groceries, inexpensive clothing, beer and soda, and few of the housewares his store sells.
"I would rate it halfway between a dollar store and an Ames," Parry said.
The store will replace the void left by Ames, he said.
"There are a lot of little things that people in Hamilton need on a regular basis, and right now we have to travel a half-hour to get them," he said. "It's a plus for Hamilton to have a department store."
Wise Buys Stores Inc., a discount department store and grocery store based in Gouverneur, has locations in Pulaski, Gouverneur and Canton. Its chairman was an Ames executive, and its first store, in Canton, opened in a former Ames.
Wise Buys officials did not return phone calls Friday. Neither did officials from Silver Builders in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which Getchonis said bought the Ames store and will lease it to Wise Buys.
Getchonis said he spoke Thursday with Dave Hollander, chairman of Silver Builders.
"He said he has bought it, the money has changed hands and he has a lease with Wise Buys, so it's a go," Getchonis said.
The store is scheduled to open in October, he said.
Wise Buys began last September. It was founded by former Wall Street financier Tom Scozzafava. Former Ames Chief Executive Officer Joseph Ettore was named Wise Buys chairman.
Getchonis said the store will be good for Hamilton.
"It's 40 to 50 jobs, and people are not going to Wal-Mart," he said. "They're going to buy their gas and eat here and not go up to Oneida. I think the whole economy is going to be affected by this."
Wise Buys would be the second New York chain store to come to Hamilton this year. Kinney Drugs, also based in Gouverneur, this year bought College Pharmacy and is putting up an 11,000-square-foot building on Route 12B, across the road from the Ames building.
ALL POSTED BY AMERICAN_PSYCHO IS EITHER FACT OR OPINION.
