OBSERVER Photos by Braden Carmen A Starbucks coffee shop in the town of Dunkirk, already approved by the Town Board, will not begin construction until the fall. Starbucks will occupy the current AT&T building in the Tops Plaza on Vineyard Drive.

Starbucks coffee fanatics will have to wait a bit longer before a new location in the town of Dunkirk is open.

The construction of a Starbucks coffee shop drive-through location, on Vineyard Drive in the Tops Plaza in Dunkirk, will not begin until the fall. A tentative construction date is set for just after Labor Day, Town of Dunkirk Code Enforcement Officer Ryan Mourer told the OBSERVER.

Starbucks will take over the current AT&T location in the plaza, which is on the end of a strip of businesses near the Vineyard Drive entrance to the plaza. Construction will not begin on Starbucks until AT&T moves out of its current location and into a new location on the other side of the same strip of businesses in the plaza, within feet of the current location.

AT&T will replace GameStop, a national video game and electronics store chain. That move and reconfiguration of the location is anticipated to begin in April.

The Starbucks project was approved by the Town Board in August, with conditions suggested by the Planning Board after offering its conditional approval in June. Among the conditions the Town Board set forth attached to its approval of the Starbucks site plan were the installation of speed limit signs, turn signs, and other appropriate signage, lane markers to direct traffic, and a speed bump to deter drivers from operating vehicles at high speeds in the area.

Regarding another board-approved project in the town, a new Popeyes restaurant has seen little progress since its approval back in May. The drive through fast food restaurant will be located in the same plaza as the Dunkirk Multiplex and the recently opened Planet Fitness gym, on Bennett Road, within sight of the Dunkirk/Fredonia Thruway exit.

Mourer stated that while construction is not imminent, more information on the Popeyes project will be available in the coming weeks.