COLONIE – Floor & Decor is looking at possibly building inside the previous location of the Sears retail store inside Colonie Center.
The Floor & Decor agenda was to be discussed during the Tuesday, March 21 Colonie Town Planning Board, after this edition went to print.
The property in which Floor & Decor would be placed as a subdivided lot within Colonie Center and would be designated as the land parcel: 42.3-1-1 on the Albany County Interactive Mapping.
The property would be developed at Colonie Center, a 1.3 million square-foot enclosed, regional shopping center with over 100 specialty stores.
The vacated Sears department store would potentially be transformed into a 58,296 square foot retail store. Site improvements would need to be made to reconfigure the parking area and be able to provide an entry vestibule, an external staircase, and a loading area. The access points to Colonie Center at Central Avenue, Wolf Road, and Sand Creek Road would be maintained.
Trip Generation Study
Trip generation rates for the proposed Floor & Decor site were prepared using trip generation data contained from the “Parking and Trip Generation Study” prepared by Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., dated March 2017. Due to the large floor area required to display their products, as noted in their study, trip generation and parking demand projections associated with typical Floor & Decor sites have been overly conservative when using industry-standard data collected from more traditional or generic retail stores.
Trip generation data was collected at seven existing Floor & Decor sites located throughout the country during the weekday morning and weekday evening peak hours to provide an accurate representation of the tenant-specific trip generation.
The study locations were identified as the best performing stores in each of their respective markets and were anticipated to generate the most intensive trip generation and parking demands, thereby providing a conservative representation of the typical tenant-specific operations.
Based on the data review, the average trip generation rate of 0.45 per 1,000 square-feet of gross floor area and 0.62 per 1,000 square-feet of gross floor area was observed during the weekday morning and weekday evening peak hours. The average trip generation rates and directional distributions, based on the observed tenant-specific operations, were utilized to project the anticipated site-generated traffic volumes that would be associated with the previous “Sears” development.
The property previously used to be a “Sears” department store that brought in traffic to and from the site. Industry-data has shown that department stores generate higher trip rates than the trip rates reported for tenant-specific operations. The location of Floor & Decor would be located inside Colonie Center, which contains other retail stores near the site. The proposed store would be expected to attract a portion of their store visits from passing by traffic or shoppers already shopping inside Colonie Center. These trips would not add new traffic to the adjacent roadway system and would be referred to as “pass-by” and/or “diverted” trips. From the study, it was anticipated that a portion of the site-generated trips would be pass-by or diverted trips.
Study Results
The proposed Floor & Decor space would expect to generate 36 total trips during the critical weekday evening peak hour. Based on the Transportation Impact Analysis For Site Development published by ITE, the trip increase of less than 100 vehicle trips would not likely change the level of service of the adjacent roadway system or increase the volume-to-capacity ratio of an intersection approach. Floor & Decor would not anticipate to significantly impact the operations of the adjacent roadway network.
A review was conducted for Floor & Decor using the site plan prepared by Stonefield was last revised Jan. 10. The attention was focused on site access, circulation, and parking supply. Existing access to Colonie Center would be maintained under the proposed business and Floor & Decor would replace the previously operated Sears department store. The parking supply would remain, with 24 existing parking spaces being removed to accommodate loading bays, trash compactor, and replaced by 24 newly constructed parking spaces provided along the Floor & Decor main entrance facade. Its site circulation would be provided by a minimum of 24-foot drive isles.
The parking supply was studied in the Parking and Trip Generation Study. Based on data review, the average peak parking demand of 0.35 per 1,000 square-feet of gross floor area and 0.47 hours, respectively. For the proposed Floor & Decor store, it would equate to a peak demand of 21 and 28 vehicles during the weekday morning and weekday evening peak hours respectively. Based on Colonie Center’s parking supply, the parking demand for Floor & Decor would be met. Also, the existing parking supply at the shopping center would support the reduced parking demand associated with the proposed Floor & Decor tenant.
With the proposed Floor & Decor to be located inside Colonie Center, it would be anticipated that the store would share parking principles as shoppers could use one parking space to shop at various retail stores within distance. The proposed future parking supply would be sufficient to support the parking demand of Floor & Decor. The parking spaces would be nine feet wide by 18 feet deep in accordance with the Town of Colonie Zoning Ordinance and industry standards.
Traffic Impacts
The report was prepared to examine the traffic impact of the proposed Floor & Decor retail store. The findings indicate that Floor & Decor would not have an impact on the traffic operations of the adjacent roadway network. The site driveways and on-site layout were designed to provide for effective access to and from the subject property and the parking supply would be sufficient to support Floor & Decor.