The Alden Echo

Alden’s July inspection deal confirms work at 11580 Walden Avenue after a delayed start on the North Eastern Alliance project.

By Rob Owens

ALDEN — Construction is under way at the former Erie County Home and Infirmary on Walden Avenue, the Town of Alden confirmed this summer as it lined up third-party inspectors for the North Eastern Alliance Redevelopment Project’s cannabis cultivation facility.

At its July 6, 2026, meeting, the Town Board authorized a professional services agreement with Encorus Group to perform inspections related to “ongoing construction at 11580 Walden Avenue.” The property owner, 11580 Walden Ave LLC, agreed to cover those costs so the town would not. A month earlier, on June 2, the board had approved a Host Community Agreement with the same company.

That language matters because the project’s public timeline slipped. The developers’ application to the Erie County Industrial Development Agency (ECIDA) listed a construction start of Jan. 1, 2026, and completion by Dec. 1, 2026. In February, coverage of their request for roughly $3.8 million in tax incentives described work as beginning “imminently.” By March, Hayes Construction was still soliciting bids for the roughly 58,000-square-foot “Alden Green House” build. The July minutes are the clearest official signal that dirt and inspections have moved past planning.

According to the ECIDA application, the private investment is about $33.1 million for an approximately 57,933-square-foot cultivation, processing, and distribution facility on roughly five acres behind the older brick complex. The applicant leases the facility to North Eastern Alliance LLC. Erie County sold the 152-acre property for a nominal dollar after years of vacancy, asbestos, and failed marketing.

At the Town of Alden Planning Board meeting on Sept. 9, 2025, project representatives addressed traffic, odor, and safety. Minutes describe a sealed operation with charcoal-filtered, recycled air and no outdoor venting (“more of a laboratory than a greenhouse”), light truck traffic of about one commercial truck a day, two worker shifts, fencing, on-site security, and no retail or public customer access.

In a statement provided to local media, partners Ryan and Luke Rich said: “We are extremely excited to bring this project to Erie County and the Town of Alden. … This project is not a dispensary, rather it will bring the region to the forefront of cannabis cultivation in a safe, extremely secure, and economically impactful manner; all while redeveloping a long-dormant local property.”

Erie County Legislator Frank Todaro, whose district includes Alden, has called the shuttered campus an eyesore and a burden on taxpayers, arguing the sale moves the property back toward productive use. Job figures cited in interviews still need to be checked against the ECIDA employment plan as hiring ramps up.

What happens to the massive buildings fronting Walden Avenue remains an open question. At the Sept. 9 Planning Board meeting, Ryan Rich said the first priority was the new cultivation building, with landscaping and security out front while the team decides next steps on the older structures. Minutes note asbestos cleanup and a phased approach. The Town Board later approved site plan, planned unit development, and subdivision measures that cleared the path to build.

For October readers, the story is no longer “will Alden allow it?” Construction is on site. The next markers are how far the shell advances before winter, what Encorus flags in inspections, and when the campus’s empty frontage gets a concrete plan.