By Mike Pettinella
For Video News Service
APRIL 1, 2026 – And the sign on the side of the former JCPenney store next to the City Centre says … Olive Garden Italian Kitchen – COMING SOON!
Could it be possible that the popular restaurant — a subject of area residents’ wishful thinking for many years – is really going to find a home in Batavia?
Well, that’s news to Matt Gray, the local businessman who just happens to own the building.
“So, I got a text this morning from Tom Phelps (director of public works) from the City of Batavia congratulating me on Olive Garden coming to town. And he sent me a picture of that sign,” Gray said by telephone on Wednesday morning. “It was my first time hearing about it.”
Gray said he asked Phelps if the photo was real because he wasn’t sure if it was AI.
“Tom said, ‘No, I just took that five minutes ago,” Gray said.
In other words, April Fools!
“Yeah, I’m very excited about them coming,” Gray said, tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Returning to reality, Gray said he and partner, Matt Boyd, have been working with realtor Tony Mancuso for nearly a year in an effort to attract tenants to the 38,000-square-foot building.
“We’ve had a couple larger tenants that have looked at the space but, in the end, we couldn’t get them across the finish line,” Gray offered. “We are currently working through a plan to split off some of the square footage that is closest to the concourse for smaller retail locations — for smaller businesses ranging from 400 to 1,600 square feet.
“So, we’re hoping that we can fill in some of the void that some of those retail locations that were at the Harvester Center. I think there’s a need for it in the community.”
Previously, Gray talked about the possibility of putting apartments on top of the structure.
“It’s a goal to have more apartments downtown. I think an important piece of the continued development for downtown is to have more residents (there). But I don’t have any current plans for anything in that property to go up with apartments.”
File photo
Gray and five others own the former Continental School of Beauty building at 215 East Main St.
He said that project “already went through a demolition permit, and (we) pulled out most of the Continental stuff, and it’s down to just the shell of the building.”
“Within the next 90 to 120 days, we will be starting the construction project at that building,” he said, adding that the plan calls for nine apartments on the second and partial third floor of what is now being called the Metropolitan Building.
Gray said they are looking for two commercial tenants at roughly 3,000 to 4,000 square feet each.
“We are working with a couple of respective tenants currently, and we’re hopeful that we’ll get them signed in the next few months here,” he said.
File photo
ABOUT THE ‘METROPOLITAN BUILDING’
Gray provided historical context to the name of the East Main Street building, which had served as a Sears store prior to the beauty school taking it over.
“Metropolitan is the original name,” he said. “A young developer named Benderson bought the land and existing building from Charles Mancuso & Sons in the early 1950’s and built the new building to house the Metropolitan Insurance Company on the second floor – so it became known as the Metropolitan Building.
“We are bringing it back. The first tenant on the first floor was the grocery store Hi/Lo.”
Going back even further, Gray said the Metropolitan Building replaced another structure — the former Knights of Columbus home that was used as the organization’s meeting place for most of the early 20th century.
We would love an Olive Garden ! We have way too many pizza places and only a few restaurants to choose from . We hate having to drive to another city to have good food ! What about bringing some businesses down by the fair grounds ? Every building including Walmart which I help build the super center is at that end of town and nothing is at the other end !! We could all benefit from w Whole Foods store or something like a Wegmans . Instead we have a fair ground and a derby that happens once a year and with the price of food and gas we in batavia could benefit from better restaurants and better food stores like Wegmans .
Yes i totally agree with the person above. I can’t remember. I believe the name was Brandon. Brandon, something a wagners are all whole food, healthy store, like a natural lori’s, but maybe a different name would be amazing. I agree with the whole fairgrounds. I don’t even go to it, never have granite. I do enjoy the carnival when it comes and my children. I am totally down a 100% with a wagn’s or
A dairy, clean arsonic or just to sit down restaurant. Nice, and absolutely. I’m down with more apartments for the community at cheaper rates