IDA Adaptive Reuse Policy To Benefit Restorations

This is great news WCP!!! Should stimulate much ED in Buffalo. Plus, help to restore the vacant buildings left standing throughout the area that are deserving of redevelopment but stifled due to lack of incentives. Looking forward to the next several months to see which developers get on board here.

This is great news. Its about time that the ECIDA developed a program to encourage a trend that has been starting to gain some steam. This type of story should be front page news. I would bet that most average BRO readers wouldn't even understand why this basic policy decision is so important to development in the region. It's a shame that most people will not even remember this story in a week because its not as glamorous as some of the other stories posted here but this could really go a long way to encouraging some truly transformative changes in the area.

"new housing is not needed because the region is losing population," Seriously? What does Satish Mohan propose? Allowing these buildings to remain vacant until the "industry" that is flooding into the area seeks to occupy it? There is no industry moving downtown Satish. It isn't Amherst. Have you considered that a major step toward returning population to Buffalo is taken by providing attractive places to live? Now that Mr. Mohan is done messing up Amherst maybe he will focus his efforts on taking apart Buffalo too. Who votes for these people?

Considering this story is there any news yet on the Tishman Building bids that were in a month or so back?

Satish.. does that mean you will vote against stop new housing in Amherst? Didn't think so...

Looking at the long term implications of adding new housing (all all the related infrastructure needs) in places not currently developed, against bringing in people and life to existing infrastructure and buildings actually means this is the Smartest options for new housing units in the region.

We already have paid for and continue to pay for the sewers, power, schools, fire, cops, roads, cable, sidewalks etc.. for ALL of these buildings. This is a much smarter use of money for the long term sustainability of our region.

"so we get lack of action and another decade of decline in the city while the suburbs continue to grow."

...and water flows down hill. Doesn't matter who is in office or where, development will continue outward. It is the system that is rewarded. With no population growth the tail of the wave will have vacancy and asset loss. Lancaster is now growing as Cheektowaga is seeing the vacancies, etc along its west border. It will continue this way until a county wide solution/plan etc is enacted.

"We have a surplus of housing structures and a surplus of industrial / business structures, we do not need to offer incentives to convert industrial structures for residential use. "

Then please tell Mohan to vote for a building memoratum (residential and industrial/business) until structures/infrastructure in Erie County is no longer at a huge surplus. The city has every right to be able to develop unique residential operations as it tries to turn itself around, even with subsidies to help it along. We've been subsidizing sprawl and supporting shrinking city for over half a decade. Time to turn that around and make the whole county storng enough to reduce them all around.

Great article!

If I'm not mistaken, this policy was adopted, in part, in response to the governor's veto last year of the expanded preservation tax credits -- a surprise which put at risk several projects that were under consideration. So imagine what a program like this will accomplish piggybacking on top of the new bigger and better rehab stimulus credits (as mentioned in the article) which hopefully will be adopted within the next few weeks. Having the means to get projects underway to reuse these buildings will be a bright spot in an otherwise dim economy -- especially for the building trades.

What is the massive brick building at the bottom (last picture)?

Could BRO please post a story documenting the laws and policies established in Amherst by Mohan discouraging and stopping the construction of new housing in Amherst? It would be interesting to find out what this obviously forward thinking local leader has been doing to stop sprawl in the area.

Its that huge (what looks to be empty) brick building on the east side of Elm st. between Sycamore and Broadway. Don't know what it is or used to be but its big enough to be converted into almost anything.

Mohan makes more sense than most who commented so far.

The issue isn't whether new residential should be banned in metro Buffalo due to the falling population. He didn't say it should be banned.

What's at issue is whether _industrial_ development taxpayer funds (the "I" in "IDA") should help pay for new residential that will enrich developers and just resuffle around a portion of the local shrinking population.

I agree that people who build and buy new houses in Amherst of Clarence should be assessed local town property taxes to pay for the roads, sewers, and other infrastructure needed for the new housing. No question about that. Fed, state, or county taxes shouldn't be used for that.

But IDA money shouldn't be used for residential, retail, hotels, etc. Let developers build or convert whatever they want downtown as long as they and their tenants pay their full fair share of taxes. As the Obama administration says, that's patriotic.

mohan is done dec 31st any way, he didn't accomplish much in his 4 years.. inducing investment in old buildings especially downtown is almost always a good thing

A healthy core city attracts industry and new companies. A rotting empty core city repels industry and new companies.

There's just no evidence that it will attract companies and jobs to metro Buffalo by using "industrial development" taxpayer money to play musical chairs with shuffling residents away from neighborhoods and into downtown.

Maybe it's feel-good psychologically to see people deciding to live downtown but it's just moving them from other neighborhoods for the most part which then have less demand than the would otherwise. The average city resident doesn't benefit.

Allow developers to do this if they want, but let them use their own funding.