A proposed $80 million expansion at Batavia Downs remains dependent on several approvals, including a subdivision decision by the Town of Batavia and state approval of acquisition funding. Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.'s board has authorized the purchase of the long-vacant former Kmart property for $6.25 million, but the sale cannot close until required approvals are secured.
The Purchase and What Comes Next
The Batavian reports the board approved buying the 5.3 acres, including the building at 8363 Lewiston Road, from 570 DAB 30, LLC, for $6.25 million, with the board authorizing spending up to $6.4 million once closing costs are included. The same report notes that The Daily News describes the parcel as including a 116,000-square-foot building and roughly 100 parking spaces across from Batavia Downs Gaming on Park Road.
Funding for the acquisition is expected to come through Western's Eligible Capital Awards Fund, but that funding is contingent on approval from the New York State Gaming Commission, per the dossier's sourcing. Before the sale can close, the Town of Batavia must also approve a requested subdivision of the property, and the corporation must secure zoning approvals and other land-use permissions for its planned use. Those conditions mean the timeline for breaking ground remains uncertain even with board approval in hand.
An $80 Million Vision for the Site
The project on the table is described as an approximately $80 million expansion that would include a hotel addition, a new multipurpose event center connected by a skywalk, and more parking. Batavia Downs' existing hotel has 84 rooms and opened about a decade ago; the planned expansion would add at least 50 more rooms. Separately, a Buffalo News report from late September described the project as adding 70 additional hotel rooms alongside new event space, illustrating how the room count attached to the plan has shifted across reporting.
The new event center itself would include meeting and event space designed for banquets, trade shows and corporate functions, with the skywalk linking it directly to the expanded hotel. Officials have framed the project as the start of a regional tourism and entertainment campus to be developed in phases beginning next year.
Why Batavia Downs Says It Needs More Room
Western's own reporting has said the four existing event venues at Batavia Downs are already at capacity, pushing local groups to book conferences and gatherings in Buffalo or Rochester instead because Genesee County lacks a modern conference venue of its own. The Buffalo News has reported that Batavia Downs has had to turn away several hundred events in recent years simply because it didn't have the room to host them.
The capacity squeeze isn't limited to event space. OTB leadership told Investigative Post in late 2024 that the hotel is regularly between 94 and 96 percent occupied, a figure cited at the time as justification for expansion plans. Batavia Downs' facilities have faced capacity pressures.
A Winding Road to This Point
The push to add hotel capacity has taken several turns over the past couple of years. Investigative Post reported in March 2024 that a hotel-expansion proposal under consideration at the time would have added 48 rooms, with OTB officials saying they didn't yet have a cost estimate; that same year, the board approved a $76,000 design contract with Bammel Architects and a $29,750 market-analysis contract with Spectrum Gaming Group. By November 2024, Investigative Post reported that Western had put a planned 73-room addition on pause, with officials suggesting the delay could last six months to a year.
The existing hotel itself has its own backstory: a 2021 account cited by Investigative Post said ADK Hospitality spent $5.5 million to build the 84-room property before OTB bought it for $7.5 million. The corporation has sold off property near Batavia Downs before, too — in 2015, its board authorized selling 35,000 square feet of land to a group of investors for $605,000.
Permits and a Nearby Redevelopment
The Town of Batavia’s Building & Zoning department lists a change of use in land or a building or business among the activities requiring a permit, according to the Town of Batavia. The proposed subdivision and zoning approvals for the site remain among the steps identified for the project. A separate Western New York redevelopment plan took a different form: WKBW reported that the former Seneca Mall site in West Seneca was slated for a phased multipurpose commercial redevelopment, with construction expected to begin in October 2025 and the final phase to wrap up by January 2028. That proposal was for a commercial complex, rather than a hotel and event center.
