Boscov’s announces 10 year lease extension and $10 million in upgrades

BINGHAMTON (WBNG) -- Mayor Kraham, Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, County Executive Jason Garnar and CEO of Boscov’s Jim Boscov joined forces to announce a 10-year lease extension for Boscvo’s in downtown Binghamton and $10 million in upgrades for the historic court street building on Monday.

The five-story, 240,000-square-foot building will undergo $8.5 million in critical building systems upgrades, including electrical, plumbing, HVAC, elevator repairs and more.

Kraham shared how terrible he believes it would be to lose Boscov’s.

“The loss of those jobs, the loss of that tax revenue but most importantly the fact that taxpayers would be saddled with a quarter million square foot vacant building downtown,” said Kraham. “It would take millions and millions of taxpayer dollars to fix up and likely years and years to find tenants.”

The work is supported by a $5 million New York State Assembly grant secured by Lupardo, $2.5 million from the city of Binghamton and $1 million from Broome County. The funding from the city and county comes from local American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocations. Boscov’s will spend an additional $1.5 million on other store upgrades.

Broome County Executive Jason Garner shared his own thoughts on the extension.

“I remember going to other places in Broome County too. I remember going to Philly Sales, Aimes and some other stores,” Garner said. “They are not here anymore but the one constant is Boscov’s. This team has come together and we’re going to make sure that your next 10 years of shopping is going to be amazing.”

Boscov’s has been a department store in downtown Binghamton since 1984. The historic building it’s in was built in the late 1800s. The Binghamton store is one of the few remaining downtown department stores in Binghamton.

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