The former Dewey Avenue Wegmans could become climate-controlled self-service storage if the Greece Zoning Board of Appeals agrees to a use variance on the property.
Developer Morgan Britton LLC is looking to turn the 75,400-square-foot former grocery store into a Stor-It facility.
The site still houses CSL Plasma, but Big Lots left in March 2025 and Goodwill followed in April 2025, leaving the property operating at a loss. Wegmans closed its Dewey Avenue store in 2011. The zoning board of appeals is expected to make a final decision at its next meeting, but a public hearing was held at its July 7 meeting.
Applicant Mike Palumbo of Flaum Management Company provided a list of possible tenants the owners of the property had been in contact with, but did not move ahead at the site. It included schools, medical systems and retail clients but none panned out. Another grocery chain that reviewed the site instead opted not to locate in the Rochester market.
Property owners say the vacant space has become financially unsustainable
The property owners said the existing building represents a financial hardship due to its depth, the decline of big box retail and new tenants looking instead at the Ridge Road corridor. A self-storage facility would return the property to profitability, the owners say, while making the best use of the available square footage and 225-foot depth.
CSL Plasma currently occupies 13,368 square feet and has roughly four years left on its lease. The remaining square footage is empty, and one roughly 9,700-square-foot storefront has been vacant since the property was purchased.
“We’ve got an eyesore and we’ve got a problem over there,” Palumbo said. “And the only way to get out of this problem is to get creative.”
Self-service storage is a permitted use only in industrial zoning districts and by special use permit in the flexible office industrial zoning district. The property is currently in the Dewey Mixed Use zoning district.
Gus Ognenovski, who owns Dewey Self Storage, said during the public hearing that the market for self-service storage has peaked already and is in decline. He said he’s at 80% occupancy at his business and there has been a rise in delinquencies.
“They open up there, they’re going to cut my business in half and we’re both going to fail,” Ognenovski said.
The 74,161-square-foot store off Britton Road opened in December 1983, replacing a store Wegmans had operated since the 1950s at Northgate Plaza on Dewey Avenue.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Former Dewey Avenue Wegmans may become self-storage
Reporting by Steve Howe, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Steve Howe, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | USA TODAY Network
