The Buffalo Common Council on Tuesday approved a license for a slaughterhouse operation at a former Tops Markets location at Broadway and Bailey Avenue in the Lovejoy District.
The front of the site will serve as a supermarket with fresh halal fruits and vegetables. The slaughterhouse – or halal food processing center – will be located in the rear of the building, said Lovejoy Council Member Bryan J. Bollman.
Only poultry will be processed at the site, Bollman said.
The owner, Hossam Abelallah, purchased the building at 1738 Broadway last March for $2.2 million, city records show.
Abelallah, whose home address is in Depew, also owns Super Price Choppers on Genesee Street in the Fillmore District, said Council Member Mitchell P. Nowakowski, whose Fillmore District abuts the new processing center.
The location of the parcel is zoned industrial. A special-use permit was not needed, and the license does not require a public hearing, said Bollman, who set conditions with the license approval.
The owner must equip the site with an air filtration system, and after one year, the license will be reviewed for renewal.
“If there are any impacts to the community, any concerns that we didn’t foresee, that will cause a hearing and could be cause for nonrenewal,” Bollman said.
The business will serve a burgeoning Muslim community in their districts, said Bollman and Nowakowski.
“We have a lot of business owners kind of swarming, looking for locations in the city of Buffalo to put a slaughterhouse,” Bollman said. “There’s been a growing call for that.”
“There’s going to be access to a full line of grocers, poultry products, vegetables,” Nowakowski said. “We’re talking about a supermarket with fresh meat in an area that is in great need of a grocery store when we lost Tops. So he’s going to be bringing back a grocery store.”
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