Developer Douglas Jemal has agreed to sell the Boulevard Mall to Benderson Development Co., ending his six-year effort to redevelop the sprawling retail center in Amherst into a town center development with stores, apartments and offices.
The agreement to turn over ownership of the 64-acre mall to Benderson will reunite almost the entire property under a single owner, and one with the background, expertise and national reputation as a retail-focused developer.
It also cements Benderson’s dominance of the Amherst retail marketplace, especially along Niagara Falls Boulevard. Benderson already owns The Boulevard, Boulevard South and other retail center properties just to the north and south.
But the sale also raises new questions about the future of the mall site and whether Benderson intends to proceed with the town center plan or go in a different direction.
Nor is it clear if Benderson can succeed where Jemal and the previous owner failed in turning it around. With the mall largely empty, Benderson will be starting almost from scratch.
Benderson Vice President Eric Recoon would not elaborate on the developer’s plan for the mall, except that some parts may be demolished while others would remain.
“We do have a vision, but we’re not quite ready to present that vision,” Recoon said. “It would be, candidly, premature, given that there are a few steps that still need to be overcome with new hurdles that need to be crossed before we’re truly entitled of the remainder of the property.”
He declined to say whether Benderson plans to continue with the town center project. “I think it is safe to say that there would be meaningful elements of that mall that would go away, but not necessarily all,” Recoon said. “So I think it would be a combination of demolition and reuse.”
And he said there’s no timeline for releasing more details, other than that things will become clearer as the town moves through the process.
“Rest assured, we’re already a large stakeholder in Amherst. We have made enormous commitments in town already,” he said. “We’re thrilled about the prospects of some future development and commitments on that site.”
Amherst Supervisor Brian Kulpa said the town looks forward to working with Benderson, a developer with extensive holdings in Amherst and the region, to overhaul the mall property.
“The town has a wonderful relationship with Benderson. They’re by far our largest investor in terms of property,” he said.
Financial pressures
The deal comes as Jemal’s real estate empire in Buffalo and Washington, D.C., is coming under intense financial pressure, as the Washington market has weakened in the wake of the Trump administration’s government staffing and lease cuts. That’s left Jemal strapped for cash at a time when rising costs, high interest rates and unfavorable loan terms have stalled most of his Buffalo projects.
It’s the latest example of Jemal backing away from a local project, after he pulled out of the Richardson Hotel and his broader plan to redevelop the rest of the Richardson-Olmsted Complex, and withdrew from a proposed housing project in Lackawanna.
He’s also put up the Butler Mansion for sale and tried to sell the Mahoney State Office Building on Niagara Square at auction, both to no avail.
And it comes after Jemal sparred repeatedly with Kulpa over what Jemal feels is foot-dragging by the town over an eminent domain proceeding needed to unify ownership of the site. Kulpa, worried about the town getting stuck with the mall site after the eminent domain proceeding is complete, has said he is reluctant to proceed unless he has an ironclad agreement that Jemal will then buy the site from the town.
Jemal did not say how much Benderson would pay to acquire the mall, but said the deal is expected to close “soon,” probably within 45 to 50 days.
“I’m elated that Randy Benderson is taking it on,” Jemal said. “I’m happy for the Town of Amherst that they’ll get what they need. And the Benderson company will do a great job on it.”
However, it’s unlikely that Jemal will recoup his investment in the mall to date.
Jemal bought the mall and the adjacent Wegmans supermarket on Alberta Drive for a combined $30 million in June 2019. The mall has since been emptied of most tenants and is largely closed except for anchor stores with their own exterior entrances, likely making it even less valuable.
Kulpa noted some of Benderson’s projects, such as its transformation of the former University at Buffalo annex campus into the future home of Costco Wholesale, required engaging with the town.
“They’ve invested heavily in the town over the past few years,” Kulpa said. “It’s a kind of a natural outcropping of that relationship. So, I think that they’re going to be good partners.”
The town remains interested, for example, in retaining a portion of the property, as much as one-third of the 64-acre site, that it would sell to a developer of housing, Kulpa said.
“We’ve been working towards an agreement, I’ll say that,” the supervisor said.
Backing away
Jemal’s decision to throw in the towel came six years after he stepped in to buy the 962,000-square-foot mall just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, following an auction by LNR Partners, the special servicer for the lender that had taken possession of the mall in late 2017.
He quickly unveiled a 10-year plan to transform what he described then as a “sea of asphalt” into a “little town” dubbed “Boulevard Place,” creating a denser mixed-use community of housing, retail and recreational space in multiple new buildings. Plans ultimately called for as many as 1,500 units of student, senior, affordable and luxury housing at the site.
To help speed the process along, the Town Board in 2022 designated the mall as an urban renewal area to facilitate the redevelopment. The site is also in an Opportunity Zone, which offers other benefits for development.
But the project was stymied because of myriad deed restrictions, covenants and tenant agreements that threatened to block redevelopment, as well as the divided ownership that made it complicated. Besides Jemal and Benderson, anchor department store J.C. Penney also owns its own store, as does Firestone.
To get around those obstacles, Jemal proposed having the town use eminent domain to take control of everything, void the restrictions and sell it back. Benderson agreed to the plan and in early 2023, with the support of Jemal and Benderson, board members voted to begin the legal process.
Penney fought it in court, finally losing its last effort less than a year ago, in late 2024. It has since expressed to the town that it would like to stay on for the town center redevelopment, even if its final configuration looked different from what it is now.
Meanwhile, through 2024 and into 2025, tenants continued leaving the mall, but little tangible progress was made in the planned lifestyle center overhaul, as Kulpa and Jemal bickered. Jemal said the town didn’t have the money and wasn’t taking action quickly enough, while Kulpa questioned Jemal’s ability to follow through.
A frustrated Jemal earlier this year told The Buffalo News he had no choice but to refill the shopping center and pursue his own plan for the property. Kulpa, in response, said the town hadn’t wavered from the eminent domain plan and blamed Jemal’s impatience on his need for cash. He vowed the town wouldn’t be rushed even as the rift between town and developer deepened.
Now, Jemal will be out of it altogether. “It’s the right thing to happen for the property,” he said. “Did I hit it out of the ballpark? No. Did I try? Absolutely, but it is what it is. Amherst will be fine. Boulevard will be fine. Benderson will be fine.”
Kulpa said that, even with Jemal’s withdrawal from the project, the town will continue to pursue eminent domain to help move along the redevelopment of the mall site. He said the town has had extensive conversations with Benderson about the future of the mall property and he believes the company and town share a vision for its revival.
“The town has a plan. The developers have all seen that plan,” Kulpa said. “They’re all well aware of what the town’s interests are here, and the town is still planning to be helpful to the development as a whole.”
Reach Jonathan D. Epstein at
(716) 849-4478 or
jepstein@buffnews.com.
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