NORTH TONAWANDA — For several years now, Mid-City Plaza shoppers have been forced to engage in another activity while searching for bargains — dodging cracks, crevices and holes in the parking lot in front of the shops and stores at the popular Payne Avenue plaza.
This month, the owners embarked on a $200,000 project to re-pave portions of the pothole-covered plaza lot, including sections near the main entrance on Payne Avenue and in the area leading to the plaza’s anchor store, Tops Friendly Markets, off Meadow Drive.
Mayor Austin Tylec said repairing the parking lot, which has been a long-standing complaint from many city residents, is part of a larger investment the plaza’s current owner, Texas-based Four Points Property Management, has committed to at the site. Tylec said management has told him it also intends to spruce up the plaza buildings with painting, facade renovations and awning and roof repairs.
“It’s showing an investment and that they want to improve the plaza, which is great,” Tylec said. “I think residents should be excited about a property owner that is investing millions of dollars to improve this longstanding plaza that we have in the city.”
The project also helps with ongoing efforts to improve the general appeal and look of the Mid-City part of North Tonawanda.
Later this year, the city plans to begin construction on a new aquatic center at Payne Park, just down the street from Mid-City Plaza. The $8.2 million project, which includes $4 million in federal funding and $750,000 from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, will feature a new lap pool, diving board, multiple slides, water jungle gym features and new lockers and bathrooms.
The new aquatic facility will replace Payne Park Memorial Pool. Originally opened in 1948 in recognition of soldiers who fought in World War II, the pool is one of many so-called “Bintz” pools — above-ground, ovoid-shaped pools designed in towns and cities across the country from the 1920s to the 1950s by Michigan-born architect Wesley Bintz. It will also result in the removal of Payne Park’s Raindrop Spray Pool, a wading pool that offers roughly 2,000 square feet of water surface area, primarily for younger children.
Tylec said the new in-ground pool will have something the old above-ground model didn’t have and that’s compliance with access standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act, a federal law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life.
“We’re working on re-energizing the park there and we hope the plaza owners would really see that as an incentive to continue to invest in their property,” Tylec said. “We’re committed to improving the area around there and we have told them that we’d love to have a commitment from you guys as well.”