Dick's hangs its sign on former Lowe's building

Yep. Our newest tourist attraction is almost ready to open!

I humbly suggest that we boycott the aptly named DICKS, until they close their doors and leave town.

Christopher, I don't think we will have to boycott Dick's. I don't believe they will be here that long. I can't see where the customers are going to come from, with stores in both Rochester and Buffalo. No way they have the draw of a Bass Pro.

I'll give them a shot, but...............

Don't blame Dick's. They do not own the store. Blame COR if anyone.

And if you wanted to boycott, then to be honest with yourself, you have to boycott every store in that plaza, all owned by COR.

On the other side of the coin, every sale means sales tax for Genesee County.

If you are a strong advocate of businesses that respect the rights of gun owners, do some research on Dicks and how they treat gun owners, law enforcement professionals, and comport themselves on gun owning; carrying; gun handling;etc. I have personal experience on that very issue and will not support them with my dollars.

Cabela's will be opening a store in the Buffalo area very excited ! We plan to make a day of it, pack the cooler perhaps visit a few other places like the Botanical Gardens, the waterfront.
We don't visit the Buffalo area often maybe twice a year to do an airport run certainly not to shop. So you can say we will be shopping tourists well mostly window shopping since hubby was formerly employed by Lowes ... still recouping from that.

Jeff, good to know 'bout Dick's treatment of law abiding NY gun owners. Personally I believe that Dick's knows it won't be long for the Batavia, site but it will benefit from what evere tax advantages having a failed store provides.

What part of 1.8 million in tax abatement did you not understand? We wont be seeing any tax money from this plaza for a good long while.

I hate Dick's. The customer service in Henrietta has always been horrible, even going back to before they were in Marketplace. They won't be getting my business. Can't wait for Cabelas!

Christopher,
The County might not see any tax, but the City of Batavia gets approx. 17.5% of the County share of all sales tax. You buy a golf ball at Dick's, the City get a share. Living in the City, I like that.

I don't blame Dick's at all. I don't blame COR either. Both corporations are just playing according to the rules of the game as established by Albany and the EDC's.
If you don't like crony capitalism and tax breaks for a select few corporations, then register your complaint on November 5th.

Please tell us when it's actualized, Howard.

And show us the (tax) benefits to the city?

Bob,
Dick's is not located in the City of Batavia, it's in the town. The benefit to the City is in the sales taxes the City receives. There is really no way to break out how much will come from Dick's any more than you can on how much comes from Top's or any other store.

John,
We don't really know how many additional sales tax dollars a new retail store generates. I expect that most of the sales tax dollars collected at Dicks will be sales tax dollars that would have been collected at other retail stores in Genesee County. Certainly some people will drive to Dick's from Orleans and Wyoming counties. But, The number of local dollars being spent on retail doesn't necessarily increase significantly when a new store opens. For the most part local spending just gets distributed differently. The inability to truly quantify the economic impact of a new retailer allows COR and GCEDC to predict (with impunity) questionable sales tax benifits for the community.

You can see how much sales tax a store creates. Ex.1 million in sales with get you 80000 dollars...half of that goes back to Albany..the other half stays in the county..Of that the city gets 17%...... To say this will generate more than $4.5 million in new tax revenue by 2018 is just an assumption..Not a fact..You will need 50 million in sales to generate 4 million in sales tax.....I find that hard to believe..In 5 years who knows what stores will be left in that plaza....Lowes is a good ex...GCEDC has been proven to have fudged many of the facts on employment and benefit to the county,through state audits....Target owns their building and has their own tax abatement program with the GCEDC...They dont and shouldn't need it.......

Jim,
The abuse of our GCEDC is well documented. My point, in answer to Bob, is that any retail sale, anywhere in the County is good for the City. And looking at it from only a City point of view, it matters less what store is in the plaza but that stores are there and selling products so that we continue to get that sales tax revenue.

All one has to do is look at county sales tax revenue over the years to see if any of this has benefited us....The last couple of years it has been the high cost of gasoline that has brought more sales tax revenue into the county....

And how much would county taxes have to go up to make for the plaza if it was not there?
How much would City taxes have to go up to make up that lost money?

Howard,
True, the city could cut the Police Department or the county could sell the Nursing Home and save about $3 million. It all depends on what services you want and are willing to pay for. But as the cost of the services you want go up, the money to pay for them has to come from someplace.

John you made the point about the sales tax,which is what i address. You said.On the other side of the coin, every sale means sales tax for Genesee County...If you buy something from Dicks that means you aren't buying it from another store in the county that sells the same thing..What revenue is the city going to lose that will cause the city tax rate to go up..The town of Batavia is the only one who has benefited so far is as Howard stated is the town of Batavia fire district which is good for those that live i n the town...I

Mark,
That's true. But when I buy from Target or Wal-Mart, or Burger King, whatever, it is sales tax we get. If I buy gas here rather than Buffalo, we get the sales tax.

But if the plaza was not there, then people who hate Wal-Mart, but love Target would go out of the County. Same for any of the chain stores there.

And please try to remember, the City gets money from every retail sale in the County. Mark, tell us where the City would make that lost income up unless you cut services?

The people in the City can have any service they want, as long as they want to pay for it, or as little as they want as long as they are willing to do without.

The problem is John there is no "if the plaza was there" It is and so is target. So your speculations arent really valid, if every store in that plaza wasnt there and it was leveled to the ground then people would buy from wal mart, kmart or order online.

Online shopping while a convenience, is what is killing the sales tax base. I'm almost "but not quite" sure that online sales taxes dont make their way to our county or city, they go to wherever the company you order from does their financial business.

Howard my math might be wrong but assuming a tax rate of 40 dollars per thousand..county is at 10 dollars and the school is at 24 per thousand plus the fire district tax...you say ..a good portion of that $4.5 million is property tax...That property would have to be assessed at 100 million dollars to get 4 million in property tax..

I would have liked to see a big lots there instead. You know, a place where low income families can shop for nice things.I am not a huunter and oppose it...but....I do not understand why a business would be allowed here that would possibly take away from a small business that has been here for many years. Doesn't make sense. Of course a lot of things don't make sense. Making rt 98 into one lane. I have seen traffic backed up to lyon street. The circle....both of them....the garbage deal...hiring a "cheerleader" to go out amongst the community and get out input on how to better things...what a joke we are. Council doesn't listen to the majority anyway. I hope next election ppl remeber that our voices went unheard!

Mary,
Aside from the GCEDC issue with this, the idea of the government to "allow" a business is not something we want. Businesses make enough bad choices on their own without government making even more. Dick's is there because they think they can make a profit. We'll see. They are also there because they made a business deal with COR. Again, we can talk about the tax breaks, but we should stay out of who is allowed to open a business.