Starbucks may be coming to Cortland

CORTLAND, N.Y. —The nation’s biggest coffee chain is looking to take advantage of the recent departure of Tim Horton’s from the city of Cortland.

[do_widget id= text-6 ]

On Monday, two representatives from a Binghamton-based real estate agency appeared at a meeting of the city’s planning commission to present plans drawn up by Starbucks Corporation for a coffee shop on Clinton Avenue.

The plans call for the demolition of a building at 145-147 Clinton Street, which is currently occupied by the Country Kitchen II restaurant, and the construction of a 2,000 square foot building that would be occupied by the coffee shop.

Jeffrey Hammond, project manager for DSK Realty, which owns the property, says his agency was approached by Starbucks, which expressed interest in the site.

Hammond said a new building would be more in line with current building codes than the existing structure.

Planning commission chair Jeff Gebhardt asked Hammond why he or the coffee chain had not pursued the vacant property at 141 Clinton Avenue, which was occupied by Tim Horton’s until the Canadian coffee chain abruptly closed several locations throughout central New York in mid-November.

Hammond said they reached out to the property owner multiple times but didn’t receive “any answers.”

“The day the sign went up with information for realty, I pulled in,” Hammond said.

Planning board member Jim Reeners expressed some concern that Starbucks’ plans could interfere with the Clinton Avenue “Gateway Project”, which involves replacing aging water and sewer lines underneath the street and, if funding is available, refurbishing the area in an effort to make the city’s main corridor from Interstate 81 more attractive to travelers.

The planning commission voted unanimously Monday to move the project to the site plan review phase.

[do_widget id= text-7 ]