BUFFALO, N.Y. — Tops is installing its own permanent memorial at the corner of Jefferson and Landon. If you drive by you will see all of the fencing as construction is underway.
"It's been in place for the past eight months or so, just to give the lay of the land of how that area will come to fruition and what it will look like. We have recently broken ground in the area of Jefferson and Landon to get things underway, and we hope to have that space completed by this spring," said Kathleen Sautter, director of corporate communications for Tops.
Not all of the victims' families participated in the process of the design.
The space will have various components.
"There'll be benches throughout this space so that there's time for reflection and remembrance. There will be honor bollards recognizing the names of the families that lost loved ones, and there will be a central focal piece of artwork dedicated to those lives that were lost and the three victims who survived the attack. Beautiful landscaping, some other components that are being built in, but every little detail had a lot of thought put into it from the type of stonework that's being brought in to create this beautiful, calming and welcoming space," Sautter said.
This honor space memorial is not the 5/14 memorial commissioned by the state of New York.
As for the Tops memorial, Sautter said, "We felt it was very important to make sure there was something on the grounds at the space at Jefferson and Landon. It has become a space from the very beginning that was a place of honor and respect and where families and friends gathered to remember what happened there that day and we felt it was just intrinsic of us to be able to make that space where the permanent memorial was for the community to come back and be able to spend time to quietly reflect and remember and pay respect to what happened in the community."