PAINTED POST, N.Y. (WENY) -- If you or someone you know is tired of driving for hours to go to a real Lego store, then look no further. Empire Bricks had its grand opening early Saturday, and people showed up before the doors opened.

"We were scheduled to open at 10 a.m. and we had people showing up at 9:30 a.m. and we just opened the doors for them. So, no lines were needed outside in the cold. The grand opening has exceeded our expectations. We were anticipating maybe 50 to 100 people total throughout the day. We went through 50 orders over $25 in the first 45 minutes," said Matthew Towner, owner of Empire Bricks.

Towner runs the business with his wife and two younger daughters' help. He said it was incredible to see his vision come to life.

"I've always loved Lego, my kids as they’re growing up, are inspired by it and are constantly building things. We wanted something in the community for kids and families. There's nothing around like it within a couple of hour's drive. So we thought, ‘why not?'" said Towner.

According to Towner, making the store fully come together took eight years.

"It started out with Brick Link where we’d buy sets on clearance, part them out, and put them in our online parts store. It got to the point where we couldn’t keep up with it anymore. Then it turned into sets, and then the sets continued to grow and here we are today, having enough material to run our own store," said Towner.

In-store, you can buy Lego sets but you can also customize your own mini-figure. You can also fill a bag with miscellaneous Lego pieces. But building and buying Lego doesn't mean the fun stops once you leave the store.

Right next door to Empire Bricks is iCode. iCode is an after-school and summer camp program, where children are taught how to code, program, and even create their own video games.

"It’s definitely a 2-for-1 deal and we’re trying to promote iCode more. With Lego, I don’t have to promote it, Lego promotes for me. iCode is something I have to do the promotions on. The two of them work really well together," said Towner.

When the store was open on Saturday, there was a promotion where 20% of what customers spent in the store, went back to them to use towards summer camps and classes with iCode.

"We want to grow the community. We want to offer a safe space for families to come, which is why we started both iCode and the Lego store," said Towner.

One customer who came to the grand opening was Bill Giancoli. Giancoli said it's great to have a Lego store so close to home now.

"It's great to have it to be spontaneous. To just wake up in the morning and ask ‘hey, what do you want to do today with the kids?’ You get up, go out somewhere, get lunch, grab some Lego, and then build all day long. It’s great, especially in the winter," said Giancoli.

Looking ahead to the future, and everything Towner and his family want to do with the business - he's excited.

"As well as this was done today, as long as I can maintain inventory for people to keep coming and buying in our store, we’d love to expand into more of the building. We own the building, so the world is our oyster on where we go from here," said Towner.

Towner said his daughter helps out at the store, and she's excited to see how much the store will progress in the future.

"My dad has been so passionate about Lego ever since I was a baby. I'm very excited to see this Lego store grow," said E. Towner.

Empire Bricks plans to be open on weekdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sundays from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Appointments can be made if you or someone you know doesn't like crowds.

The Towner family is excited to eventually expand the business. M. Towner said they hope to host fun Lego events like birthday parties and adult social gatherings.