GUILDERLAND — With the recent approval of a five-lot subdivision at 634 Route 146, the launch of a new Phillips Hardware store, and impending opening of a Phillips General Store that offers customers gasoline and Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through service, someone might want to start thinking about putting in a stoplight.

There’s quite a bit of time; it’s not by choice, but it’s there. 

Jonathan Phillips, the owner and president of his family’s hardware store, told The Enterprise he could have been up and running by the end of the year, but the issue is that the general store and Dunkin’ would be built long before a gas tank would ever get put in the ground. 

The pandemic caused the lead time for fiberglass gas tanks to go from six-and-a-half weeks to nine months, Phillips said. 

COVID-19 restricted people’s ability to travel, which increased demand for fiberglass. With nowhere to go, people started to buy boats and other recreational vehicles and install pools and spas in their homes.

The problem was compounded by the supply-chain issues and restrictions manufacturers faced during and coming out of the (pre-Delta variant) pandemic in addition to the February storms that sent Texas into a deep freeze. 

Texas is home to a giant chemical manufacturing and processing industry, which make up the petroleum-based products needed to create fiberglass. As the state lost power for part of February because of the bone-chilling temperatures, it triggered a global plastics shortage, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

The Phillips General Store and Dunkin’ Donuts will likely be built and then have to sit for four months, until gas tanks come in and can be installed, putting the entire project on track for a worst-case scenario opening in June 2022, Phillips said, but he’s hoping he’ll be able to open in May of next year.

Asked about partial opening, Phillips said it didn’t make sense to open the general store and doughnut shop prior to setting up the gasoline service just to have the entire operation upended for six weeks or more when the gas tanks show up on site to be installed. 

But in the meantime, Phillips is working to make his electrical bill a thing of the past, earning tax credits for installing two electric-vehicle charging stations in his parking lots and installing solar panels on the roof of the new store that will pay for themselves in seven years. 

“Between government shutdowns and global pandemics,” it’s something out of science fiction, Phillips said of his experience over the last half-decade, but he notes with optimism and enthusiasm, a very large part of his project is complete.

Five-lot subdivision

The Guilderland Planning Board at its July 14 meeting gave final plat, or subdivision, approval to divide 20 acres of land at 634 Route 146 into five lots. The property is located right across the road from Staucet’s Nursery and about 400 feet from the nearest edge of the property to the intersection of routes 146 and 158, according to Albany County Interactive Mapping. 

The final plat plan shows just four single-family lots being built-out and being accessible only from Weaver Road, with the seven-acre Lot 5 along Route 146 remaining undeveloped for the time being.

Mike Flocuzzio, the applicant, said at the June 23 planning board meeting that his original subdivision proposal included duplexes on Lot 5 — the initial plan was to subdivide Lot 5 in two and place a two-family home on each parcel, but the board placed a subdivision restriction on Lot 5 at a subsequent meeting. 

With Flocuzzio amending an earlier plat proposal that included a keyhole lot, the board at its July 14 meeting voted to remove the restriction placed on Lot 5, allowing Flocuzzio to further subdivide the seven-acre parcel.