LONGMEADOW – Planning Board Chair Bruce Colton said he’s concerned that Big Y has had no communication with the board despite its proposed plans for an expansion at its 802 Williams St. location.

“We’ve had no contact at all from them,” Colton said.

Claire D’Amour-Daley, head of corporate communications for Big Y, told Reminder Publications the company plans to meet before the board in the future and have not done so yet because the designs for the project have yet to be completed.

She added the project would entail knocking down the wall between the supermarket and Brightwood Hardware, which leases its space from Big Y, to allow the grocery store to expand within its current footprint.

“[The Big Y] is about 17,000 square feet,” she explained. “It’s difficult for the store team to manage. All the storage is in the basement. It’s difficult for customers who need to use the restroom because that’s in the basement. So having a little extra space will allow us to add into those departments that are out of room right now.”

She continued, “Brightwood Hardware has been looking to really change a little bit – downsize a little bit … I believe they’ve been looking for quite some time at another spot in Longmeadow to relocate to.”

Brightwood Hardware, located at 7894 Williams St., opened its doors more than 50 years ago.

Big Y completed a $2.3 million renovation at its store at 441 N. Main St. in East Longmeadow in December, which is 59,000 square feet and includes new offerings such as a sushi department, a café, a Living Well Eating Smart section with at least 1,300 organic, natural, and gluten free products, a hot soup bar, and an updated Little Y Kids Club

“It’s hard to have a selection of gluten free and organic produce when we barley have room for regular produce,” D’Amour-Daley said. “It’s hard to respond to changing tastes and wants when we don’t have a lot of space. Not to say that we don’t have some in [the Longmeadow] store because we do.”  

She added Big Y also recently purchased O’Connell Shell locations at 711 Bliss Road in Longmeadow, 75 Russell St. in Hadley, and 1993 Boston Road in Wilbraham and plans to offer gasoline to customers at the properties.

“Concurrent with the O’Connell convenience store and gas station on the corner, [in] that whole plaza we’re looking what we can do to reconfigure the cross easements, clean up the parking, make it a little safer to navigate through and just improve the overall experience,” she added.

D’Amour-Daley said Big Y is now hiring for the gas station and the transaction with O’Connell should be completed by the end of this month or early February.

“The only initial change frankly will be taking the Shell signs down,” she explained. “The Dunkin’ Donuts stays. Their lease is maintained … There’s no change there.  [You] probably won’t see any other changes until the summer.”

D’Amour-Daley said she believes the company is late to the game in offering gasoline to customers.

“Many of our competitors have gas stations as well,” she added. “It’s not something we invented.”

Colton said if Big Y only plans to knock down the wall between Brightwood Hardware and the supermarket, the project would not likely need to undergo a site and design review, but would require a building permit.

“I’m not sure they could get the building permit to do that if they don’t meet the parking requirements,” he added. “That would not actually be the Planning Board. That would be the building inspector and the Zoning Board of Appeals. The last time [Big Y] was in front of us was, I believe, in the early 1990s when they did the expansion to what they have now. At that time we did not have numerical parking requirements.”

D’Amour-Daley said Big Y also plans to include small aesthetic improvements to the outside of the supermarket.

“Typically we do spruce up the outside [of the store] as well,” she noted.

Colton said if Big Y includes any exterior changes to the building a site and design review would most likely be required.

Brightwood Hardware Manager Ken Cohn declined to comment to Reminder Publications at this time.