Nearly 60 years of tradition will come to an end this year when the Buffalo Drive-In closes at the end of the summer.

The Harlem Road landmark is to be demolished for the construction of a medical campus.

“It’s the last drive-in in Cheektowaga,” said Mary Holtz, town clerk and town historian.

Walden Development Group is buying the 18-acre parcel after Labor Day.

“It’s sort of bittersweet,” said drive-in owner Steve Valentine. “We’re going to miss it, there’s no doubt about it.

Walden Development had wanted to build a three-story medical office building, but now is seeking permission for a larger facility.

“The response has been so good we have gone from a three-story to a four-story building,” said William Schutt of William Schutt and Associates, the developer’s engineering firm.

The location near the Kensington Expressway, minutes from Buffalo Niagara International Airport and downtown Buffalo, makes the property attractive. Valentine said the drive-in business is a six-month operation, and it is difficult to let the property sit idle, generating no revenue, for half the year.

“At some point the economics of doing something else with it just makes sense,” he said.

The new building would be 87,000 square feet and would be located between Harlem and the theater’s projector building, with parking for about 400 vehicles. The concession stand would be converted to a maintenance building.

Schutt said the new facility does not depend on the future of nearby St. Joseph Hospital, which a state commission has said should be closed.

“These are primarily going to be suburban doctors who have offices in Amherst and Clarence,” he said of the tenants.

Schutt also has submitted what he calls a “master plan” for the site, which includes three one-story buildings of about 20,000 square feet each. The project is called the Maxim Medical Campus.

“There are no plans for an additional building. Of course, it is an 18- acre site,” he said, adding that he wanted to plan for utilities for future buildings just in case they are needed.

Neighbors are looking forward to the change. Cedargrove Heights borders the drive-in to the north and east.

“I’m happy for the drive-in to go,” said Joan Adams of the Cedargrove Neighborhood Action Committee. “It’s an improvement.”

The building would need a variance because it will be more than 30 feet high. Plans call for a covered walkway from the new building to the existing Atwal Eye Care building. Schutt said the state Department of Transportation will incorporate a driveway to the medical building into its plans to reconstruct Harlem Road.

“Our big concern is going to be trees on the site,” said Fred Beaman, a member of the Conservation Advisory Council and Environmental Advisory Committee.

“You have an opportunity to recover some green,” Council Member Thomas M. Johnson Jr. told developers last week.

The town is hoping trees can be planted as a visual barrier between the campus and homes, and new landscaping could be incorporated on Harlem Road.

That will be far different from the existing three-screen outdoor theater. The drive-in opened April 16, 1948, Holtz said, and its first film was “Song of the South,” a Walt Disney live action feature that included some animation.

The drive-in opens for its final season April 6.

Originally published online here: http://www.buffalonews.com/105/story/40262.html