Grand Island Plaza owner in sync with repair, upgrades

By Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

Grand Island Plaza owner Don Singh said he is cooperating with town officials to get repairs done to a portion of the plaza roof near M&T Bank. He also said he wants to renovate the plaza and fill vacancies.

In January, a Dollar General delivery truck drove into and damaged a portion of the roof over a vacant dry cleaner’s store.

Earlier this month, Singh arranged for a tarp to temporarily cover the gash in the damaged façade until repairs are complete. Singh, an Arizona resident, also has hired a new maintenance management company to renovate the plaza. The overall goal is to attract prospective tenants for the vacancies that currently exist.

Asked how long repairs to the roof would take, Singh said, “It won’t take very long – they were just so slow in coming with the estimate – I would think next month or the following month.”

He said he talked to the insurance agent for Dollar General on Tuesday.

“With an insurance claim, you can’t fix those things without the insurance investigating the accident,” Singh said.

The town gave Singh 30 days to repair the damage or be in violation, and although his projected time frame would exceed that, he said he talked to town officials about it a few days ago. He said he would be getting back to them soon. He expects to arrange an extension through Ron Milks, department head of the Building / Code Enforcement / Zoning Department.

Singh said he’s still looking for a buyer for the whole plaza.

“Well, anything is for sale if the price is right. If somebody can make an offer, they can buy it,” Singh said. He confirmed his asking price is $7.9 million.

Singh said he was not currently dealing with any potential sale and commented that the commercial real estate market is tough right now.

“I don’t know why the Town of Grand Island is giving more and more permits to build more commercial. It’s overly saturated. It’s difficult to lease, and there’s more supply than demand,” Singh said.

Until and unless he gets a buyer, he knows what he wants to happen next.

“I need some tenants,” Singh said. “A grocery store would be ideal. I mean, Aldi could have gone there. They chose to go by the freeway.”

He mentioned stores such as Ames and Big Lots as the type of tenant he’s looking for.

Online sources including Wikipedia state that Ames, which at its peak operated 700 stores in 20 states, went out of business in 2002. Big Lots filed for bankruptcy in September 2024, and many stores have closed.

“I’m not the only ‘big box’ sitting vacant. There are thousands of ‘big boxes’ sitting vacant across the U.S.,” Singh said.

He said that, compared to the rest of the Western World, the U.S. has five times more commercial space. “And they keep on building more, so that’s the problem,” Singh said.

Last week, Grand Island Town Council member Jose Garcia spoke to NFP about the damage to the plaza. He has been in talks with Singh about making improvements.

Garcia said the damage there spurred the community to start to get involved again and press for repairs.

Milks said the damage to the plaza is the most pressing of several open violations.

“We’re not typically granting people extensions without them actually doing something, so that may or may not happen,” he said.

Milks said the violation went out on Feb. 13 in regard to that damage to the roof: “He is basically at the point right now where a follow-up letter is going to go to him ... so the next step is to write him up for court.”

Milks said there is a meeting scheduled this week “with a contractor that’s proposing to fix not only that damaged piece but the entire facade.”

Advance Maintenance Services is now working for Singh to improve the former Ames store, the plaza’s biggest retail space.

“They’re doing an excellent job,” Singh said.

He added that it is not being prepared for a specific tenant, at this point, but he sees it as having potential to house a supermarket or other commercial venture.

“Anybody can lease it. I don’t have a preference of one over another,” Singh said.

He said it’s hard to predict how long before a new store would be up and running in the former Ames.

“It could take several months,” Singh said, depending on the needs of the eventual tenant.

Singh said he has a good working relationship with Garcia and with the town’s Code Enforcement / Building Department.

“In the past, there have been issues, but I think they are very cooperative now – and especially Jose Garcia,” Singh said. “I think he’s all on board to make the plaza look better and lease it up.”

Singh said Garcia even offered to try to help find tenants for the plaza.